Best Buy “pre-orders”: A glitch in the system

There’s something weird about this report from Punch Jump News. It says that last night, Best Buy online customers were able to fill out pre-order forms for 60GB and 20GB PS3s, for a couple of hours at least. Even weirder when the pre-order link was later changed to “Coming Soon.”

It’s weird because Best Buy didn’t advertise any pre-orders, and according to PS3Land, Best Buy normally does not do console pre-orders.

So PS3Land rang up Best Buy via 888-BESTBUY to ask what was going on. Their sales representative explained that  last night’s “pre-order” was a “system glitch,” and that yes, Best Buy does not do console pre-orders. And yes, everyone who unfortunately has filled out the Best Buy form in anticipation of beating the crowds this Launch Day, shall receive full refunds for their dashed hopes.

Oh well. This is how Best Buy’s PS3 Launch Day is supposed to work, according to PS3Land’s conversation with Best Buy:

• Best Buy doors open Nov. 17 at 0800 hours. (This is local time for each time zone, right, PS3Land?).
• An employee will hand out PS3 tickets that “correlate to the exact amount of PS3s their store holds.”
• “When a customer receives a ticket, he/she will be able to go inside the store and purchase a PS3.”

Time to break the tents out.

There’s something weird about this report from Punch Jump News. It says that last night, Best Buy online customers were able to fill out pre-order forms for 60GB and 20GB PS3s, for a couple of hours at least. Even weirder when the pre-order link was later changed to “Coming Soon.”

It’s weird because Best Buy didn’t advertise any pre-orders, and according to PS3Land, Best Buy normally does not do console pre-orders.

So PS3Land rang up Best Buy via 888-BESTBUY to ask what was going on. Their sales representative explained that  last night’s “pre-order” was a “system glitch,” and that yes, Best Buy does not do console pre-orders. And yes, everyone who unfortunately has filled out the Best Buy form in anticipation of beating the crowds this Launch Day, shall receive full refunds for their dashed hopes.

Oh well. This is how Best Buy’s PS3 Launch Day is supposed to work, according to PS3Land’s conversation with Best Buy:

• Best Buy doors open Nov. 17 at 0800 hours. (This is local time for each time zone, right, PS3Land?).
• An employee will hand out PS3 tickets that “correlate to the exact amount of PS3s their store holds.”
• “When a customer receives a ticket, he/she will be able to go inside the store and purchase a PS3.”

Time to break the tents out.