GameStop, where PS3 fans get the Shaft.

On a cold autumn night the emails went out. Preorder PS3 tomorrow at Ebgames and Gamestop. I happened to be looking for a job in the greater Kansas city area when I heard the news. I checked the Gamestop website and found a few in the local area. A couple conformation calls later I picked the spot where I would be early tomorrow morning. I arrived at 6. It was still very dark and very cold out. I brought the folding chairs and there I sat with my 2 brothers. Anxious at the opportunity to be one of the first. After 2 hours we had another join us, a firefighter from Johnson County. Chatting about the latest in gaming technology and software. Soon more arrived; a Solaris administrator, a jittery teenager, and a mother of two that was on top of things more than her children were. There we sat for at least another hour and before everything was said and done 20+ people were standing in line to get their name on a list.

As the doors opened we shuffled in stiff from the cold and glad to be inside. 15 preorders were all that were allowed, well 16 if you count the guy behind the counter who was magically first on the list. I was first. Paying my 100 dollars and getting my receipt along with a small slip that informed me that they couldn’t guarantee anything due to limited reserves at launch. A small blurb at the bottom mentioned that they were limiting pre orders to one per household. My older brother was next, the successful one of the family he had moved out and gotten married 2 years ago, the man behind the counter recognized our not so common last name and immediately informed him that it was only one per household. “We all live in different places”, said my brother as he paid his 100 dollars and moved out of the way. My little brother went next, once again he mentioned that it was only 1 per household, once again he was met with the more than obvious fact that we don’t live together, even offering his driver’s license as proof his location was different. Everything was well and good and we went on our marry way knowing that soon we would be killing each other from 100 miles away.

Then the next day it happened. I received an email from my older brother telling me that we were “Screwed”.

According to the happy Gamestop employee, they were unable to allow us to order more than one, I once again told them that we don’t live in the same household and he diverted to the always popular “It’s corporate man, I can’t help you.” I later went down there to explain the situation to them in person and received the same response. I asked to speak with his boss, a district manager named Courtney, she informed me that the policy extends not only to the same household but also to family members but if you look at the image below it clearly states “household” not “family.” I asked her why she changed the policy afterwards and she hit me with the best line I’ve heard in a while, “We want to make as many people happy as possible, we will honor only one per family.” Obviously I was getting no where with her so I asked to speak with her boss. She gave me the phone number of gamestop/ebgames corporate help line. After running a few circles with them they basically told me that the district manager was the one who called the shots and it was out of their hands. “Why would she redirect me to you if you couldn’t do anything”, I asked. No answer. So I called back Courtney, this time looking to speak to her real boss, the regional manager. No answer. It’s been a few hours now and still nothing. I guess she thinks that if she ignores me that ill just go away, but I have a secret ally, the Internet. Please feel free to pass this information around to everyone you know, who loves gaming and together with the community you can make this a Happy Holiday for my family, and all 3 or our households.

Here are a few pics of what went down:

Image manipulated to protect the innocent.

Sorry Gamestop it says Household L

UPDATE: I Once again called gamestop help center and spoke with an associate about the problem. He recognized that we lived in seperate households and understood the problem. He told me that he was going to speak with the district manager for me about the problem and get back to me later. An hour passed and I hadn't heard anything so I called him back and he informed me that he had researched the problem, Had seen the Digg.com article and also read the forum that I regularly post in. This included the thread where I admit my intentions to ebay the system. He then told me what everyone else did, that it was only one unit per household and per family.

I guess I should fess up as well. My Intention has always been to resell this system after i recieve it. With supplies as short as they are and all of europe in the cold the price this holiday may easily go over $1500. For those that were mislead I am sorry. Also I need to note that while I originally didn't know this, My sister in law also preordered her system. She and my older brother share the same household so i can understand why they wouldn't want to honor this preorder.

Like I said previously I do intend to resell my system. This however has nothing to do with my rights to purchase the system from them. Infact of the 3 of us that ordered the system, I was the only one still on the list even after they became fully aware of my intention to resell it.

So here is the problem I see right now. They want to define household as anyone living in the same dwelling and also as anyone related to each other. This is silly, but even more silly is the fact that most of the people I have talked to from gamestop don't believe that household is defined that way. This is obvious because of the way the follow up the statement, "One per household" with "and one per family." Also during the preorder they asked if we lived in the same household, knowing full well that we were related. Obviously not everyone was aware of the policy given the man behind the counter was willing to let this go once we showed him drivers licenses with different addresses. I will be speaking with some higherups at gamestop tomorrow, I'll keep you posted on whats going on.

Thanks for all the support. Im sorry to hear that this happened to others. Hopefully I will be able to arm you with the information you need to get changes made. till then.