Pre-Order CE's from Best Buy?

[Toasty the Baker]

I've heard quite a few horror stories of Best Buy canceling pre-orders of CE's long after they sell out, leaving people out in the cold. Of what I've heard they have a bad habit of selling more than they'll actually receive.

Share your experience with pre-ordering from Best Buy. Even though I get 20% off with the Gamer Club membership, I'm still a bit scared to pre-order from them. Has anyone experienced a cancellation? Does anyone have any info on if they have changed their policy to avoid this? Do they still do it, or have they done it, with recent CE's?

I would like to do as much business with Best Buy as possible, so that I save money and rack up points. However, I tend to pre-order CE's from Amazon, as they have a much better track record of not screwing up. I buy standard $60 games from Best Buy mainly.

[Dreamcazman]

I've never dealt with Best Buy (for obvious reasons), but if possible, if they are as flaky as you make out, I would always preorder from another source (Amazon, Gamestop) to cover your bases.

If Best Buy deliver on the goods, then great, you get the points & discount. If not, then at least you have a backup plan.

[KnightOfTruth]

I preorder CEs from BB frequently but almost always have a backup (Amazon or GS). Strangely enough BB has never cancelled on me, though if you do an in-store I've heard that sometimes they don't actually put them behind the desk. Luckily both of the BBs I use always are good about setting aside pre-orders.

I know for a collector its not always a good consolation prize, but BB almost ALWAYS gives you a significant gift card (and/or the game free later) if they cancel a CE on you that you had ordered. They've done this recently with several different games including the MM3D CE and the N3DSXL.

I ordered my Witcher 3 CE from them, the Smash bundle, and I'm sure a few other recent ones that I can't think of at the moment and all was well. But yeah, BB has pretty much got 100% of my non-CE purchases now because of GCU and also gets most of my CE ones if they're pricey (Saved $50 just by ordering the Halo5 one from them alone vs other retailers).

[Toasty the Baker]

I have a couple of CE's pre-ordered both on Amazon and Best Buy, in case BB cancels on me, like you guys recommend. When would it be safe to cancel the Amazon order? I don't want to be billed twice for the same item!

[imironmann]

Yeah I've got a horror story from BB canceling on me.

Since the nearest BB is a hour trip one way for me this was a online order not in store so its not quite but almost like dealing with a separate company. GameStop is just a few minutes drive from the house. Maybe it was my fault for not understanding their methods but either way I lost out on the Borderlands 2 loot chest edition because of it. Not just one either but 3 of them because 2 were supposed to be Christmas gifts to family that year. Since BB is such a long drive for me I never even consider using them for pre orders and after what they did to my online order I refuse to use their online services.

So what happened is I have separate bank account I use for online orders. I keep little to no money in this account until I need to use it then I transfer cash to it from my primary account. Just incase somehow someone online gets my info and goes on a spending spree.

Well the pre order went live for the Loot Chest and I placed a order for three. A few days later they were sold out everywhere. About two weeks later I got a email from BB saying my order had been canceled. I immediately called customer service to find out what was going on and they told me my order had been canceled due to insufficient funds. This was still several months before release date. As it turns out if you pre order anything with BB online they will place a hold charge, not actually charge you, every 30 days to ensure you have the funds to pay for the pre order. If the cash isn't there they simply just cancel on you with no prior notification. I had no idea they were going to do this or I would've had the cash there. I asked why they didn't give me a heads up they were going to do this and was told it's my responsibility to ensure I can afford my order. I asked them to reinstate my pre order and they said they couldn't because it was sold out and their system wouldn't allow it.

BB had three loot chests allocated to me until they canceled on me. I tried for over a month with phone calls and emails to get them to reinstate my order with no luck. I've always wondered where the three that were in my original order went since according to them there was no possible way to reinstate my order or to place a new order for them. Perhaps they're still in their boxes sitting in the corner of one of BB's warehouses since they claim they had no way of selling them.

I still avoid BB because of it. If they had at least made an attempt to fix it for me instead of acting like I was nothing and just being a nuisance to them maybe I'd feel a bit different. BB now gets $0.00 from my and as my collection shows I spend a fair sum on video games every year.

[Toasty the Baker]

So do they do these cancellations around the time the item releases? I'm just not sure when exactly to cancel my Amazon order. When would my BB order be considered 'in the clear'?