GameStop not getting enough PS3s to fill preorders

Sony enters their console just before Christmas - overpriced, buggy,and not enough units to satisfy the demand. Nintendo is almost as bad off with the WII - great system, but too few units means that people are buying the XBOX 360 instead, of which there seem to be plenty of everywhere. Looks like Microsoft is finally in position to win the console wars, at least temporarily. If the other two companies don't get on the stick and start cranking out more consoles, Microsoft will end up having the console standard for North America, which means game companies who want to sell games will make stuff for the XBox. These guys better get onthe stick, or Microsoft is going to eat their lunch.

The GameStop near my house in the Palmadle CA Mall (Antelope Valley Mall) Told everybody that was in line that they only had 8 consoles and that everyone after me needed to go. I thought that was wierd considering I was Number 5 in the line and the day before they told me they had 4 Consoles of PS3 and they told my cousin they had 6 PS3s.. Whomever was 1st and 4th in line of Pre Orders got screwed also because they did not even show up that morning. So it was me and 3 others standing there. The employee working there proceeded to whisper to us when we were finally alone that he really didnt even have 8 consoles and that he ONLY GOT 1 CONSOLE!!! He immediately sold it to the guy in front of me who was bragging about selling it on eBay for 3 Grand. The guy who bought it was 3rd in the pre order line. The Manager at GameStop didnt even call the 1st guy on pre order and tell him to pick up his console. And now me and like 7 others must wait who knows how long to get one and I paid for mine IN FULL PLUS 5 GAMES and still dont have one. The guy he sold it to didnt even have it paid in full. This is the LAST time Im dealing with GameStop!!

Only if Sony had manufactured enough

Does anyone know when the next shipment of ps3s will be coming to ebgames? Ive been hearing it would be next week i hope so, my store is getting 8 units and i am 9 on the list of 14, and i have already paid in full and i have RFOM and madden 07.

it must suck to be an employee and have to break to some die hard fan that they wont be getting their system on the date the payed for.....if your talking mabout those calls StillWingless, i feel for ya..... btw, im really excited about the next 19 hours........

"As always, Gamestop screws up with their customers. " How can you blame gamestop? The blame is with sony... forst the promise 1m for launch in the US, then 400,000, now 200,000 And they expect people to believe there will be 2m by the end of the year... big fat bunch of liars!!! I thought i may actually get my ps3 in march 2007 (europe) not so sure now

As always, Gamestop screws up with their customers.

Thats typical for EB and gamestop, why can't they just be honest with their customers in the first place

making those calls sucked, by the way. thank you sony for making me do all these horrible things.

great news for us ebay sellers

sony has slashed its number in half! eb/gamestop/walmart all got there ps3 shipments slashed! ebay will be crazy!

hjkdbz yep im pretty sure it did to Psyfon, anyway for all the people saying it aint goin to sell, it seems right now the demand is way more than the supply --------------You could sell a toaster oven with all this hype and it would still sell out. The real question is will it still sell 1 year from now? 3d0 sold out too, for what its worth. so did dreamcast and saturn.... i know cause i was working for 2 of the 3 launches...

agreed josephreynii, and i have been working for the company for 5 yrs now, it sucks time to time but i enjoy the ppl i work with and i have a good group of customers who are practicly best friends i have known them all so long. Also to clear things up gamestop and eb HAD to take pre-orders and WE did wait till sony said "we garentee you these set amount of systems for your stores" and that is when we did the orders, thats why it was so late in the game for us to preorder something, they wanted to make sure about it. The reason i say we HAD to take orders is that we are a retial chain of small stores that really only operate on about 3-4 ppl max a day for the most part, and they don't want us to have the mobing line outside the day the systems come in so ppl can try and get ahold of one. It avoids conflict in the long run if we can dictate the ppl who are getting them by the pre-order, that why we will have LESS ppl calling and coming in all day once the systems are sold out. It is for the convience of the employees more then the customers on this part, cus i for one would not want to have to deal with that crowed in the morning. It will already be busy as is even with only a few ppl getting the systems.

I got the very last reservation at my local Gamestop, and i got the call today saying I would have to wait for the second shipment. To be modest, i was pissed. (a USED game for less than $20 hardly compensates, btw). I know there is nothing they can do about it, but it just sucks. The person who spoke to me said that Sony promised to get the rest shipped by next week. I guess its not that big of a deal, and if they had told me i'd have to wait an extra week or two when i first reserved it, I would have done it anyways just to not have to bother with lines. But to be all exited about friday, and then find out i have to wait just plain sucks.

I opened the store to reserve my Wii so i will be almost all day there waiting for mine!!!!!!!!!!! With Zelda, Metal Slug and DBZ tenkaichi is enough for me have few friend r getting red steel and other so im done .^_^ Shhh!! For Now

"Gamestop is doing some very illegal things to their employees and its the fire power the small employee(that makes 6.00/hr after 3 years w/ 1 review by ) needs to make things change." I like your style Autolycus!

Anyone read Maddox's latest article? It pretty much covers the current state of the console wars.

Yeah, real news flash there! I don't think EB or Gamestop has ever got a pre-order right.

asking employees my rear!!! there telling us where fire if we don't wait.

Zelda FTW! JK, but I knew this was going to happen considering that 8 preorders seemed like too much for each GS.

yep im pretty sure it did to Psyfon, anyway for all the people saying it aint goin to sell, it seems right now the demand is way more than the supply

Who knows JunkTrap, it depends on how long it takes another shipment from Sony to come in, and that in itself is not a good sign.

This sucks, I missed the preorder by one at the store I ordered from... now when should gamestop/ebgames be expecting a 2nd shipment?

And i'm one of those pre-orders who has to wait!!!

Im so glad i had to go to the bank and spotted the 3 people outside gamestop that morning, after talking with the store manager at my local gamestop and confirming with him the info off my preorder reciept im happy to know that i am the 2nd person on the list. 60 Gig is mine... Pwnge

BWHAHAAH. Yet another nail in sony's coffin! How sad is that?

ha ha sony fanboys those ps3 in japan are allready haveing problems playeing ps2 games so its haveing problems with ps2 games ha ha great lets the games begin. and if you dont believe me go to gameinformer .com its there in the news section

This sound familar. I can swear The 360 had the ssame issue when it came out.

josephreynii-- thank you for clarifying. I agree if you have no urge or not resources to get "inside" to the important stuff. quit. because there are so many better companies out there(no best buy isnt one of them, i worked my way into their system too). There are much better jobs out there that will pay you for the work you do. GS just sitn one of them...as for what GS/EB could've done? I personally think it would've been better company wide(for consumers) if they didnt do the reserve system. But the thing that bothers me is the greed of gamestop corp(not sm's cause they arent corp). They wanted the reserves so they could invest the money for a profittable return. Its common business practice and we all know the consumers don't care if you give them a slip they all think they are getting a system @ launch...to all the consumers that have gotten damanged by this, please remember that the STORE MANAGER or ANY EMPLOYEE has nothing to do with you not getting your system(well SM is probably keeping his/her own, but thats not illegal or improper at all, its a perk of ajob. Just like a company paying for gas).

@ Autolycus. the register closing out comments werent' toward you, but toward an earlier poster.

@ Autolycus. i believe you have a legitamate complaint and i wasn't including you i the quit comment. i think you're manager is a jerk and should be fired for what he did. I was letting you know court battles are hard to win especially against a large coorperation. All i was really trying to say to you is that i don't think it is a widespread problem. As for me, i have personally put in additional hours in my store to do a relay or other things, but it was only on a volunteer basis, and no i didn't get paid for the aditional work, but that was ok because i knew before hand. My quit comment goes for the people that only have negative things to say about the company. If gamestop is sooo bad, and you hate it sooo much, the answer is simple. Quit! I've been working at gamestop for two years, and i've seen my share of crappy things (360 launch) but i really 100% do not see how gamestop could have done anything different concerning the ps3 launch except not take pre-orders at all. But if that happened, then no one would win. YAY!

poomonkey3000 you obviously didnt read what I wrote. Yes i agree SM's do a play a large role and I am in an extremely high volume store(in the ghetto) as well. However, GAMESTOP CORP is notorious for using scare tactics on their retails puppets. Threating to bring over the RM or whatever only to have the store cleaned and never show up. Its bad business and its going to hurt GS/EB in the end.Im not saying the SM closed the register. I know ever trick in the book in regards to the SPP manual. My ocmplaint is that there are countless employees world wide(gamestop is located in 7 countries) that dont know that as soon as the closing key holder closes the register they are clocked out within 5 mins. And, btw in the Gamestop(not eb) hand book (i was a 3rd key so i had to look over that damn thing too) it says close the register as soon as possible. they HAVE NOT created a new SPP as far as I am aware and since im a cival employee part timer instead of a keyholder now, I havent had to sign any new employee guidline book.

Just talked to my EBgames store. He said although they got thier allocation of units cut almost by half, since I was 2nd in line I'm still good to go on Friday. DANCE!

I knew this would happen!! :-@ That's why I don't preorder anymore.... bastards! I'll probably get one before those 2nd shipment preorder people do lol .

Who saw this coming ? (raise the hand) I feel really sorry for those who pre-ordered their PS3 and won't get one because of Sony. It's really a bad launching, a really bad launching...

josephreynii, I take it you're an ASM or an SM. I'm an SGA. My store is a very high volume store, and we were told to reserve twelve PS3s. I've had quite a few calls myself about preorders, but for those of you angry about it, remember, we handed out little slips of paper detailing the reservation process. Reserving one simply put you first in line to get one as it came, but didn't guarnatee you one. That's more for the PS3, it seems that the Wii will be readily available on launch day to those who reserved it. This is really Sony's fault. The company didn't want to let this happen, which is why it only allowed stores to reserve so few consoles. GameStop is even being generous in giving customers free merchandise because of Sony's shortcomings. As for the guy who's mad about the computer clocking him out early, read the policy manual. The last thing you're supposted to do is close the registers, because if you stumble upon something that didn't get done (a defective move, a distro check in) you can still print labels and change stuff around. That way, you just have to shut it down, clock out, and go. So sure, you're off the clock when you set the alarm and take the trash out, but big deal, that's like two minutes, and the computer rounds to the nearest 15 minutes, so it probably all evens out anyways. You might just have an evil SM dude. I've worked at two GameStops, and one SM cared only for policy compliance, and the other SM cared only for making his customers and employees happy. It's a hard balance, but it is pretty stupid that the SM has to make that descision.

employees can purchase and store managers will buy one of two allowed before anyone else. they'll simply tell you they are out of stock even though they have that 1 left sitting in the backroom which is locked tight...

Gamestop is bull**** I called them today and the manager stated that I won't be able to get my PS3 on lunch date because they cutback about consoles. But what pisses me off the most is that I was the 9th person on the line and now I?m 11th in the system I though employees weren't allow to purchase them. Shady uhh? We as consumers should punish both Gamestop and Sony. I haven?t heard from other stores being cut back. This is BS.

cheesebob123 Autolycus: "Then once you do put it up online, they are makings sure the price doesnt go for more then $100 bucks then what the system is worth. Its in the news, look it up." Wrong. Here is the ebay policy link and it doesn't say anything anywhere about $100 more than the system is worth: http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200610241757352.html -------It appears you are right on this one. However, this description is rather vague on the guidelines... I do remember interviews with some head hanco saying they are going to do everything possible to stop price gouging on the system. I guess since this was the end of OCT. they decided to be a little less restrictive as oppossed to what they originally said. I apoligize for the false information I gave and thanks for bringing this to my attention. josephreynii - as for all the other complaints about how evil gamestop is or how it serves them right, or i hate my job, listen. QUIT YOUR JOB!-------- How will the company do any better if all the employees leave? It's my second job and the only reason I am there is so I can make a difference for the consumer, which in turn will make a difference to the profts of the company, which in turn will help the employee(those more then likely corp. will blow it on overhead). So why in god's name would I leave? Running away from a situation instead of fighting for what I believe is right, is a much better solution. But then again, i do it because care about a mass majority not just myself. But you are from texas, so I dont expect you to fully understand that (no offense, its a midwest/democrat thing)."As for the guy who says gamestop illegally forced him to work extra hours." --- MAYBE I didnt get across what I was saying. I worked the hours because i was scheduled from 4:30 to close (9:30). But we had a relay to do and blah blah blah so a few of us stayed until 10:30 no big deal. That billing period the STORE MANAGER(according the journal logs, which CAN NOT be edited) went into the Time sheet and changed their working hours from 4:30-10:30 to 5-9:30, never telling the employee. i have the printout of both the time sheet and the journal log so its not all hearsay, its hard evidence. That violates just about ever single labor law on the planet and if they dont do something to treat us(which in turn will treat the customers) better, then I'll use it. But I prefer NOT to take the typical american way and have to sue somebody for them to learn their lesson...btw the ONLY way we noticed that our timesheet was different was by keeping out clock in and clock out sheets and comparing it to our paycheck paid hours. Thats what brought about the search into the time logs/journal logs. He did it more then once and on mulitple occassions. And i would love to sue on behalf of all employees of gamestop. But i will only use that as a last resort. Its about principle and NOTHING or NO AAMOUNT OF MONEY can change that.

cjcr_alexandru, yeah it can be, they could only get like 2 per store which would piss off alot of people, Toys R Us said they are getting all of their shipment to fill their pre-orders, so it's like wtf?! why not EBor GS?!

Can it be worse than this?

I shelled out 120 down so far for the ps3 and was planning on walking in and paying it off on wednesday, well i will just wait for my phone call instead. Kinda sucks but oh well waited this long what's a few more days to wait for another if i don't get it on launch date

ok. i work at a gamestop in texas, so it may be a little different then anywhere else, but when we did the ps3 and nintendo wii system pre-orders, we were very conservative. Our store only reserved 8 ps3 units, as we were told by our district manager that it would be highly unlikley we would get more than that. We were also told that of those 8, only 2 could be reserved by employees, and that those reserves had to be the last two on the list. I was on conference call yesterday and it sounds like everyone in our district that followed those guidlines will be getting their systems. If there is a shortage, it doesn't look like it would be more than a week or two before the orders are all filled. Not to mention that of the eight pre-order we have, at least two or three of those will probably not even pick there system up. Also when we took the pre-order, we were required to let people know that putting the hundred dollars down does not mean they will 100% get a system launch day. I don't see how gamestop could have been more careful with this pre-order. I understand it's easy to hate gamestop because sony fell through. But if you are one of those lucky people with a pre-order, i think you're in a lot better shape than those without. As for the guy who says gamestop illegally forced him to work extra hours. I'm pretty sure that is not a wide spread problem company wide. I have never been forced to work longer than i was paid for, and i've been doing this for a while now. But, if what you are saying is true (i don't think you would lie about it) you would probably be better off simply finding another job, since the burden of proof is on you, and in court, that might be hard to prove. As for the computer system clocking you out automatically after it is shut down, the solution is simple. Don't shut down the system until after the store is organized cleaned and all duties are done. That's how we do it, and no one ever loses any hours. as for all the other complaints about how evil gamestop is or how it serves them right, or i hate my job, listen. QUIT YOUR JOB! DON'T SHOP THERE! No one is forcing you as a consumer or you as an employee to shop or work a gamestop/eb. No one is forcing you to pre-order anything. No one is forcing you to trade in all of your old games. The fact that gamestop and eb offer these services only benifit the consumer. I paid for my 360 by trading in the games i didn't play anymore and i feel it benifits the customer to know they can trade games in as well as pre-order the new games. So if i see some one in the store i don't recognize (we get a lot of repeat customers) of course i'm going to let them know the can bring there old stuff in for cash or credit. The fact is that Gamestop and EB both offer a great service. If they didn't, they would be out of buisness already. And yes, the company is doing well. I'm a stock holder and i recieve all the company reports. Anyone who says the company is doing poorly, simply does not understand how to read buisness new. That is all.

Autolycus: "Then once you do put it up online, they are makings sure the price doesnt go for more then $100 bucks then what the system is worth. Its in the news, look it up." Wrong. Here is the ebay policy link and it doesn't say anything anywhere about $100 more than the system is worth: http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200610241757352.html

Wow a powerful post Autocycus. This is mostly true and is why I am so against EB/GS. I was a store manager for EB many years ago. While I know some things have changed, I still speak with employees in the system and the CORP slumlord mentality is still alive and kicking. An you know what's sad? It creates the atmosphere where the employee takes it out on the customer. When you work for a real company, that values it's employees and its customers then you see just why GS will never be a top respected retail brand.

FlyingRice Curly21029 u seem to be a little misinformed on the whole thing with gamestop/eb. I also know ebgames was worse off then gamestop b4 the take over which might explain the issues with customer service. Amazing first of all that you were allowed to get your 360s, that was a sure dely for employees don't know how your store got by on that one, and for sure this time around with the ps3 employees will have to wait, if not then something is wrong with the manager. Also gamestop prizes customers over everything I don't know where your getting the info from, maybe be a little more hands on with the situation. Also gamestop/eb games is one of the biggest growing retial outlits in America right now, there definatly isn't a problem money wise. BTW the gears of war thing was a fedex fault not a company fault and if you have a manager at your store with any brain and can follow the rules, the first people in line the preorder day will and should be getting their systems first for this is what was told, no matter how much money you have down on the system. And yes we do have great regular customers at my store, but they had to wait as well, and few of them were put on the waiting block but they are still happy to be receving one either way. PS: tad anoying as well that you are telling ppl to order and cancel their orders, don't know what got u so butt hurt after all those yrs but don't ruin some one elses job cus you feel like being a jerk. Thanks. ----- as a faithful employee of gamestop that has ALWAYS looked out for the customer(and gotten in trouble for it too, by the DM) I can tell you this person WORKS for gamestop.So you know, Gamestop corp wants these to be are focus items. Used sales(because its soooo much profit for gamestop), MST(multiple sales transactions) and trade ins(because they generate the most profit from them). Not the customer. Right now gamestop is trying to get something in the employee handbook saying you can get in trouble for talking about the company online in blogs and/or forums(which could lead to getting fired). So I can promise you I am on their list of people(if they know who I am) and I will always fight for what is best for the customer.Also, dont think for a second that GS/EB is doing well. EB Games was 9 BILLION dollars IN DEBT when gamestop acquired them. Which means we had to pay 9 billion dollars to the banks to own their company(it might have been stock purchasing, i cant remember for sure though). Their idea of "cutting expenses" is to hire everyone @ minimum wage and take the DM's cars back once their lease is up on them(which doesnt really cut that much money at all). So thats why the push the use sale, and trade ins. ALL PROFIT.And if you want to use the blame game, the board got together and decided what would be a safe allocation amount as a company. They figured around 30,000 units would be given to the company and they were allocate accordingly. However they either guessed wrong(which isnt very uncommon) or the "ties" to the corporate people wher much stronger then anticipated. What does that mean? Well that means little johny or little jane, or brother tom, etc etc, etc where a lot more demanding then predicited. either way its the customer that gets hurt in the end.Gamestop/EB has never learned that without treating the employee and customer right, they wont succeed. There is a reason that this company isn't going to survive the next 10 years, and that plays a crucial role. They encourage store managers to take stock options and if you are a store mananger, DONT. Because when they give you this option, they are (in the writting) say they can let you go for any reason they deam necessary.I actually am in a VERY strong position. I have physical proof that our store manager edited our time sheets to fit the template(which actually cut our worked hours) without telling any of us. So even though we started @ 4:30 and worked till 10:30, we got paid from 5-9. We have followed every path neccessary to use in court and no action was done. We still have the proof and that right there could completely destroy the company. If we were to get a class action lawsuit, they would get looked into as a corporation. Also since the company has switched to the EB POS(point of sale) it clocks ALL employees out 5 mins after register close regardless if you clocked out or not. I promise you there are a bunch of employees that don't know that. Gamestop is doing some very illegal things to their employees and its the fire power the small employee(that makes 6.00/hr after 3 years w/ 1 review by ) needs to make things change. and despite belief most employees want what is best for the customer. but CORP comes down so hard on the store manager that the customer gets lost in the process. Now you know and now i'll probably get fired.peace

This is a circus and someone needs to put up the tent! I think this is actually great news. Why? Well I just love GS/EB getting burnt and badly too! Serves them right, I can't tell you have sick and tired I am of walking into a GS and getting the, "got an trade in's, want to pre-order a game, if you dont pre-order we are going to be sold out" I'm just sick of it. Since when do we as consumers have to put up with this garbage. Second, this just hurts Sony even more and I love it. Im sick and tired of Sony and the half-baked proprietary sewage that they INSIST on force-feeding down our throats --- BLUERAY, UMD, and the numerous flops. As someone who owns a Sony HDTV, a Viao, PSP, PS2 and Cybershot, I done, done with Sony. I will support then as little as possible. I will buy the PS3 but not until its on my terms and there is actually a friggin game worth playing. My motto is, I buy it when I know its it there and Im not putting a single $ down. Nintendo and MS just got Christmas early.

I remember running the game department at Best Buy for the PS2 launch. We were only getting 40 systems, but employees were allowed to buy them if they waited in line like everyone else. I think it should've been the same for GS/EB games employees. But I feel sorry for what those guys are going to have to go through come Friday. I've been there, and it sucks.

WPack911 Sony screws their core fan base by over promising and under delivering yet again. I swear how can anybody defend a company that is as full of BS as Sony has proved to be time and time again? ----- because these are the people gullable enough to defend george bush... they believe whatever false reality they come up with.

Autolycus and FlyingRice I am with you two....I work at a Gamestop in Cincinnati and we are first in our district and second in our region...and we get treated like crap....When we got preorders our employes did it under relatives names....give them the money...make them pick it up for you....But I know the feeling of being walked all over and being un-appreciated by these idiotic whelps.