Staff say GameStop pre-orders are a big mess now

“Is there anything you’d like to pre-order?” Almost nobody Enters and exits GameStop without hearing these words. Employees are measured by the number of pre-orders they can collect while running GameStop in the cash months before the game is actually released. But more recently, the strategy has been sabotaged by a system overhaul, with copies arriving late or none at all, and some employees worrying they will pay the price.

For the past few days, the GameStop sub has been flooded with Existing employees Complain about computer problems, which range from Stock searches borked Pre-order dates that are completely erased before stores receive their shipments. “How can I pay pre-orders when we can’t get enough of crap?” is reading one job. “Customers are understandably upset and even our regulars are ordering offline now because we can’t cater to the niche stuff…”

Three GameStop employees Kotaku Talk to echo similar issues. They trace the problem back to Convert SAP that started in the summer. It was apparently meant to integrate multiple databases, including sales, customer service, logistics, and more. GameStop did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“The stocks in our systems are currently unreliable,” one employee wrote in an email. “We receive shipments from the warehouse that don’t even show up on our receiving lists so they had us open the boxes, check the stocks, and email them back to stock control. It took the better part of my day today to process just four boxes this way.”

What games are the victims in the current pre-order crisis? NBA 2K23one of the biggest sports of the year, one. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R is something else. But some of the games that have been hit hardest are niche titles like Made in the Abyss: The Fall of the Binary Star in the darkAnd the And the Legend of Heroes: Paths from Zero. They have a small but passionate fan base, and stores often get a few copies dedicated to dedicated gamers who pre-order.

“Pre-orders have been a hell of a lot lately,” said another employee at a different store. “We were short on multiple copies of NBA 2K and collectible pre-orders didn’t arrive on time. We can only refund pre-order cancellations as store credit if more than a month has passed as well, and it doesn’t matter whether you paid in cash or not.”

While employees have to try to explain to frustrated customers why a copy of the game they actually spent their money on isn’t showing up, back-end issues also seem to spoil how stores are registered. Same sales goals Employees are measured against. Unfortunately, pre-orders are now too [a] The major metric stores are rated and when you cancel a pre-order it actually puts the stores in a negative [count]Said one of the employees. Their results were negative 22. “People are actually in trouble because of this.”

“I had 6 customers who canceled their pre-orders because they didn’t get their orders,” 1 person Spread on a subreddit yesterday. “president [is] Getting pre-orders for me but I can’t help with that [if] People are starting to lose faith in us. What’s the point of pre-ordering a game if you can’t get it anyway.” A staff member said some stores have been directed to handle cancellations by offering to reorder the game and send it straight to the customer’s home. But they haven’t heard of any long-term solution beyond that.

The pre-order failure couldn’t have come at a worse time, either. September is the beginning Busy holiday game version calendarAnd even though 2022 is less than years past, GameStop needs all the help it can get. Meme stock was on a brutal journey Since their split in Julyand it is not clear how much has been widely publicized Pivot conversion to NFTs and cryptocurrencies The company will actually benefit.

More importantly, it is another burden to bear burnt staff who work more for less. GameStop announced recently Charged Stock Bonuses For store managers who don’t start vesting until next year, and A paltry $0.50 higher than anyone else. However, at the same time, the company was tightening the screws, forcing managers to cover multiple stores, while others effectively take on the work of assistant store manager without additional pay.

“I told my manager the other day that I would quit right before he took his second store, because without our assistant manager I would have to work as an assistant manager without pay and with stress I don’t even have a new job lined up yet, I just don’t want to deal with it,” said one of the current employees. .”