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| Juke Joint Jezebel 3155th Post
 
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
    
    
    
    
     
|  "how about it! Let's do the pre-ordering thing"
, posted Mon 6 Sep 17:16
i'm full of anger and angst, and i don't know who to bitch at for this problem so i'm going to whine here
alright i pre-ordered my first game ever [Phantom Brave]. i wanted the soundtrack they said it'd come with and the artbook, which i assume is about the size of that mini Disgaea one that came in the mail
well, i went there a few times since the day of release and they said they didn't have it. that was fine with me. i didn't pre-order the game so i could play it on that first day. i pre-ordered it so i could be sure that the extra stuff would be here
a few days went by and i had other things to attend to. thanks to this Labor Day off, i got a bit of time to go there today. so i go there and yep ...
they don't have the fucking artbook. "sorry, we ran out." so .. why exactly did i waste my time pre-ordering this game for? why the fuck did i spend forty to sixty minutes, going out of my way, to drive to and from this fucking shop last week? because i love the thrill of being turned down? because i like hearing your pseudo-intelligent discussions on videogame culture? i was very tempted to fucking maul the clerk serving me, but i already gave out a pretty irritated vibe. also, she seemed a little worried for me, and i don't like killing the messenger. however, if that other guy was serving me, i probably would've taken a chunk out of his throat in one swipe
i ended up buying it anyways, since it was the Limited Edition, or whatever, that came with the soundtrack. still, irritating. i must've asked myself a hundred times today "why the fuck did i waste my time pre-ordering this when i could've went to a random store and bought it any time i wanted?"
hey, that first half of this post was pretty well-done. all i gotta do is just add a few details about the game and this would make a great insertcredit article
anyways, i've heard from a couple of people that the artbook is crap. so that's great. in that case, i want my crap artbook. i have a feeling i'm going to be anal about this, and move Heaven and Hell to get a copy of that small, shitty pamphlet. but whatever, people have their hobbies. mine is collecting, and killing people who get in my way of collecting
i'm just wondering, because i know a lot of people here pre-order shit. does this happen to any of you often, or even at all? i'm feeling alienated, and it makes hulk mad. or maybe the gamestop near me completely fucking sucks. i guess i'll start pre-ordering online or something to avoid frustration in the future. i don't know
(iggy's right, this mmcafe blog rocks)
Go back to Babylon.
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Replies:
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| Grave 840th Post
Red Carpet Regular Member+
|  "Re(1):how about it! Let's do the pre-ordering"
, posted Mon 6 Sep 17:51:
I generally don't preorder stuff if I can't prepay it all beforehand. That leads to some trouble because chains like EB and GameStop are instructed to be assholes to you on or close to a game's release if you didn't preorder. The day I bought SFAC, the guy asked if I preordered. No, I didn't. He says "You have to do that, man, otherwise we might not be able to guarantee a copy!" As he said that I was staring at a wall of unsold copies behind glass, but okay, whatever. I'll preorder stuff I feel like I really need first day, though the only games I can remember doing that for were MGS2 and MGS TTS in recent memory, but I know there's more than that. I plan to preorder Halo 2 and MGS3 now, but that's about it. I'll probably get shit when I try to buy other stuff first day, like when EB asked me if I preordered a Game Boy Player, and when I said no, denied me sale of a unit, but... whatever.
Never been screwed over on preorder goodies that I recall, though. You should try bitching to the company responsible, the chain is more to blame for not ensuring all their preorders got what was promised, but whoever was responsible for the artbook might help you out if you whine enough. Never underestimate what whining to customer service and using the phrase "This is unacceptable" can get you! It's fun to try.
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I pre-ordered the collector's edition of Icewind Dale II (PC game) and not only did it not come until 10 days after the non-collector's edition version came out, but the bonus content CD was missing.. :/
Never pre-ordered a game since.
Remembered a story! The first time I preordered a CD to get a limited edition complete with a giant ugly lithograph that I would have never ordered if I had seen it ahead of time, I got the CD about a week after it was in stores. AWESOME.
[this message was edited by Grave on Mon 6 Sep 17:53] |
| Grahf
241th Post
Frequent Customer
| "Re(3):how about it! Let's do the pre-ordering" , posted Mon 6 Sep 21:02
You can always smell a scam by how much something gets pushed on you. I can't remember the last time that I went to a video game-exclusive store (like EB, not Best Buy) and a clerk didn't go out of his way to ask if I wanted to preorder something.
Pre-ordering is a fantastic deal... if you're the store selling the pre-orders. In some cases, they get a few extra bucks out of you (if they charge extra for the pre-order), but the best part is they get a guarantee that you'll buy the game from them and not one of their competitors. Also, once you've bought the pre-order, they don't have to worry about customer service. If they run out, you have to just wait. No bonus item? Sorry, that'll be 50 bucks.
It's kind of the same deal as these reward cards that places like Best Buy have. If you payed $10 for a reward card, chances are you'll put up with some crap just to use it, and you're definitely more likey to shop at the store you have a card for than a competitor that you don't. At least with the reward cards, you at least get some discounts for using them. Wheras with pre-orders, you often end up paying more money for being loyal to the store.
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| DarkZero 916th Post
Red Carpet Regular Member++
| "Re(5):how about it! Let's do the pre-ordering" , posted Mon 6 Sep 22:39
The most important part about shopping at any gaming shop is customer service, and it's not really as simple as "EB Games sucks" or "All GameStop stores blow". Personally, I work right next to a GameStop and pretty much everyone in there will treat you like kings.
If you pre-order something, you get the bonus right then and there, so that if they're out of stock, they're out of stock before you put any money down. And after I pre-ordered Phantom Brave, I said that I couldn't tell if it was the limited edition or not, so the manager said, "Hell, I don't care", ripped the packaging right open, and found the soundtrack disc. If there were two versions*, and that wasn't the limited edition, then they would've had to just eat the cost of that game, because that wasn't what was listed on my pre-order slip. And it doesn't cost anything extra to pre-order, either. Just $5.
I think the real point of the pre-ordering is that they get fewer people bitching about games not being in stock. It's pretty much the same logic that I use at work (CompUSA) when I'm selling all of the warranty plans that we offer. People think that it's some sort of evil corporate scam, but on the individual salesmen's end, all it is is a guarantee that when they decide that Gator, BonziBuddy, and Comet Cursor are really nifty, they'll be getting their computer fixed, rather than returning it as "defective". Yes, it does a great deal of good for the corporation, but it usually works out for the salesman and the customer, as well. But that's only if you're not buying from a store and/or corporation full of assholes.
* On a side note, the whole "Limited Edition" thing with Phantom Brave really sucked. It showed up in some stores' computers as two versions, other stores' computers as one version, and was described by some sites as a pre-order deal, even though it was a goodies-in-the-box deal like the Warcraft III box set. Hopefully, Atlus will do better with the "Limited Edition" of Shin Megami Tensei, because I had originally left GameStop because both they and I thought that they were supposed to have the soundtrack in stock as a pre-order bonus. I ended up getting screwed out of the mini art book because I pre-ordered too late (the day before release) and they were out of stock.
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| Juke Joint Jezebel 3157th Post
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
|  "Re(6):how about it! Let's do the pre-ordering"
, posted Mon 6 Sep 23:41
i was waiting for your lovely reply, DarkZero, because i know how much you love to ride the corporate cock
it's funny you mention that thing about Limited Editions. the clerks were a little dumbfounded when i mentioned the extra cd, so before i gave the poor lady my money, i said "alright, i'll go ahead and buy this game. but let's open it first. see what's inside." luckily, she had another open game on hand to save us both a little time
i think it's pretty easy to say "all of <STORE X> sucks" when every experience you've had with that store, and each of its closest branches have been bad ones. then you go on the internet and talk to your friends about the stores near them and you get similar stories. something about that burns a hole in your brain, i think
oh Ammadeau, that'd be awesome if you did that. i'll get in touch with you sooner or later. probably some time tomorrow evening because this simple crap i'm working on right now is completely twisting my mind. i'm going to lose the rest of my sanity in the next ten to fifteen minutes, i can feel it! oh boy i love how this entire Labor Day weekend feels like a bullet piercing my skull. hooray for holidays!
Go back to Babylon.
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| DarkZero 917th Post
Red Carpet Regular Member++
| "Re(7):how about it! Let's do the pre-ordering" , posted Tue 7 Sep 00:10
quote:
i think it's pretty easy to say "all of <STORE X> sucks" when every experience you've had with that store, and each of its closest branches have been bad ones. then you go on the internet and talk to your friends about the stores near them and you get similar stories. something about that burns a hole in your brain, i think
What burns a hole in my brain is the fact that the people at the GameStop near you actually think that they're supposed to give out pre-order bonuses when you pick up the game, rather than when you pre-order. Do they think that GameStop gives them the pre-order bonuses at least a month ahead of time just so they can make a pretty little Cardboard Box Temple out of them in the back room? Just while I was standing there for five minutes, the guys at the GameStop near me gave out pre-order bonuses for Fable and Halo, multiple bonuses for Star Ocean, and they originally offered me the art book for Phantom Brave (this was when they, and I, thought that the CD was supposed to be a pre-order bonus). I doubt the GameStop execs gets a map out and say, "Okay, we'll treat the customers in this region well, but the ones in this section here... well, they can go fuck themselves. No pre-order stock for them."
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| Undead Fred 1879th Post
Gold Carpet V.I.P- Platinum Executive
| ""Sorry, we didn't get any..."" , posted Tue 7 Sep 02:39
quote:
i'm just wondering, because i know a lot of people here pre-order shit. does this happen to any of you often, or even at all? i'm feeling alienated, and it makes hulk mad. or maybe the gamestop near me completely fucking sucks. i guess i'll start pre-ordering online or something to avoid frustration in the future. i don't know
I pretty much never pre-order, just for the sake of not getting tied into buying from one store. But, out of the handful of times I've pre-ordered, I've only seen ONE pre-order gift. I had always assumed you're supposed to get your present with the game on release day, but I had only recently found out that this wasn't true.
I had pre-ordered Nightmare Creatures 2 years ago at an EBX, then the next one was Dead or Alive Extreme Beach Volleyball and The Getaway from GameStop. The next one after that was Silent Hill 4 at GameStop. For Nightmare Creatures 2, I was supposed to have gotten a Rob Zombie CD soundtrack. I already owned Hellbilly Deluxe, but I figured why not pre-order and get the soundtrack if I was going to get the game regardless. Never saw a CD for that. DOAXVB promised a pair of sunglasses, and Getaway was going to give me some crappy "Thug on Board" car window sign. Not only did the two games show up about a week or so after release day, but I never did see either of those bonus items. Fortunately, I didn't really care about these side items, but I was irritated that I didn't have the games on release day. For the Silent Hill 4 pre-order, I did actually care about the bonus gift (the soundtrack). I made sure to ask beforehand to see if they had it, and they had one left, so I pre-ordered. I left the store, and got a phone call telling me that I had forgotten my copy of the soundtrack. So, yeah, out of the times I had pre-ordered games, I had gotten burned on the extra gift except this one time. I think this is the only time I've pre-ordered something specifically to get the bonus item, and I managed to get lucky.
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| Juke Joint Jezebel 3163th Post
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
| "Re(8):how about it! Let's do the Tae Kwon Do" , posted Wed 8 Sep 16:13:
quote:
What burns a hole in my brain is the fact that the people at the GameStop near you actually think that they're supposed to give out pre-order bonuses when you pick up the game, rather than when you pre-order. Do they think that GameStop gives them the pre-order bonuses at least a month ahead of time just so they can make a pretty little Cardboard Box Temple out of them in the back room? Just while I was standing there for five minutes, the guys at the GameStop near me gave out pre-order bonuses for Fable and Halo, multiple bonuses for Star Ocean, and they originally offered me the art book for Phantom Brave (this was when they, and I, thought that the CD was supposed to be a pre-order bonus). I doubt the GameStop execs gets a map out and say, "Okay, we'll treat the customers in this region well, but the ones in this section here... well, they can go fuck themselves. No pre-order stock for them."
i don't know. that's one thing that really worried me when i first pre-ordered it. they've tried to coerce me into reserving games in the past, waving a shirt or a wacky poster in my face, so i expected to get it up front. but a friend said that they [the store] didn't get their copies of the mini artbook in yet, and that they told him that he could just pick it up when he got his game
they let me down, man. now i don't believe in nothing no more. i'm going to law school
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Be sure to preorder King of Fighter's Maximum Impact since they are giving away a free Terry Bogard "Fatal Fury" hat. Order it online if you want to secure your copy.
http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=B280872A
coincidentally, that's gonna be my next pre-order. i no longer have to walk around like a jackass, as i can finally attempt power geysers and rising tackles with style. that hat's gonna be awesome, i don't care how crappily made it is
oh, and i just woke up from my thirty-eight hour coma. emale now!
EDIT:
i am a horse. a giant, angry horse
Go back to Babylon.
[this message was edited by Juke Joint Jezebel on Wed 8 Sep 16:20] |
| snkneoshingo2k3
190th Post
Regular Customer
| "Re(4):how about it! Let's do the pre-ordering" , posted Wed 8 Sep 23:00
quote:
Be sure to preorder King of Fighter's Maximum Impact since they are giving away a free Terry Bogard "Fatal Fury" hat. Order it online if you want to secure your copy.
http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=B280872A
OMFG, I now joined the preorder club.In fact, I've never preordered a game in my life;and then, all of a sudden, I've preordered three games, including one import from Japan.The import one is Naruto:Narutimate Hero 2, while the other two are Dragonball Z Budokai 3 and Mortal Kombat:Deception.Right now, the one game I crave the most is the Naruto one, I just hope I will mainly obtain this one game.Fingers crossed I will get it next month, a little while after its release at the last day of this month.That's all for now.Catch you later.
THE MOST POWERFUL FIGHTERS DON'T HOLD GRUDGES THEY ELIMINATE THEM
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| DarkZero 923th Post
Red Carpet Regular Member++
| "Re(8):how about it! Let's do the pre-ordering" , posted Thu 9 Sep 00:46
quote:
 The SCUS number on the spine of the Limited Edition version has an "S" at the end so they are actually easier to distingish between than it may seem.
Actually, if you look on the back cover, it says "Special Edition" just above the picture of the message in a bottle. The problem is that it blends in pretty well with the shading of the "burnt treasure map" image on the back cover, so it's not immediately obvious under some lights (like the brightly lit ones in a game store).
Because the only edition available right now is the limited edition, this doesn't really matter. It will, however, matter for anyone that is planning to buy it over the course of the next few months, like the people waiting until December for Christmas.
And while we're on the subject, I'm four and a half hours into Phantom Brave right now. It's pretty good so far, but the bodies are already damned annoying. Between bodies on the ground, characters standing on top of bodies, and characters carrying bodies around as weapons, most of the last few fights have involved a cluster of characters and corpses. The novelty of a grid-free strategy game system is worth it, though.
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