The Persona 4 pre-order art book a.k.a. my Gamestop rant...

[josekortez]

Question - I pre-ordered Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 from Gamestop and got screwed on getting the art book when I went to pick up my pre-order (i.e. one of the employees read it while he was on the can during his break and it probably fell into the toilet). I promptly demanded my money back from the pre-order, told them that's why I never pre-order anything from Gamestop and wondered aloud why the universe isn't just enough for Gamestop to be one of those major companies filing for bankruptcy for questionable business practices while others with good reputations fail.

Ahem.

What is the likelihood that a copy of Persona 4 ordered from Amazon will actually ship with an art book if it wasn't pre-ordered? Also, can anyone else think of a place where I could get this art book with a purchase of Persona 4?

[Toandirte]

Same thing happened to me. I ended up calling the other Lamestop in town and the worker said that sometimes people didn't want their extras so call him back on Fri. 12/12 to see if there was one avaible. I wonder if I should hold my breath?

[Sudo]

Got my pre-order today from Amazon, but I doubt you'll get an art book if you didn't reserve it. I'm fairly certain that it was for pre-orders only.

[Princess-Isabela]

gamestop sucks big time, it's not worth going there preordering anything(unless it's the only outlest that has exclusive item you care for), amazon is awesome, - their customer service is first class.
if preordered it, you will get it for sure.
even if you didn't there might be a chance you'll get artbook if they have enough.

[Richter Belmount]

I specifically preordered mine with the intent of getting that artbook on amazon.com. It seems that amazon is doing a better job to get pre orders and exclusives for games , and is taking Gamestops monopoly on that away. Thank god for amazon , Gamestop is balls.

[Fuyukaze]

I realy hate coming to the defense of Game Stop as I generaly consider them to be a bane upon humanity, but here goes.....

Chances are very likely that the lame ass sounding excuse they are giving you is in fact, more then likely, the truth. Lots of GS and EB stores have aparently not been getting there books. Best thing to do is politely ask to speak with the manager and ask if they can find out where your art book is and if you'll be getting it. Dont buy the game though untill they can find out where it is. If you realy must have it though, your best bet is to get it from Amazon. Odds are good you'll be able to get it. Getting bent out of shape and throwing a tantrum isnt going to do either you or them anything good.

[Hwj_Chim]

(Amazon even shipped mine early) It is cases like this that make me hate gamestop.

[Kitsune Sniper]

I preordered my copy on Sunday (or Monday, I forget) off Amazon. I HOPE I'll be getting the artbook. :\

[izarate]

Gamecrazy might have them. I just received this in my inbox today:

http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/7503/gamecrazypersona4emailbye1.jpg

[Half Japanese]

For what it's worth, didn't Atlus sort of integrate their webstore into Amazon a few months ago, meaning Amazon took over the direct selling/order fulfillment of Atlus merchandise? If anything, they would be more likely to have the art book at this point than anywhere else. Shoot customer service an email and see what they say.

[exit]

The EBX in the mall said they never received the books, not that I pre-ordered the game or anything, but my friend asked them out of curiosity. Not that I'm trying to defend Gamestop or anything, maybe they just never received them, it wouldn't surprise me the least. I was actually kind of disappointing that they didn't pack it in with the game like they did with Persona 3, but since I could care less about the art book, I quickly got over it.

[Kitsune Sniper]

The EBX in the mall said they never received the books, not that I pre-ordered the game or anything, but my friend asked them out of curiosity. Not that I'm trying to defend Gamestop or anything, maybe they just never received them, it wouldn't surprise me the least. I was actually kind of disappointing that they didn't pack it in with the game like they did with Persona 3, but since I could care less about the art book, I quickly got over it.

I thought the preorders got a book and an extra CD. Right?

[josekortez]

Dont buy the game though untill they can find out where it is. If you realy must have it though, your best bet is to get it from Amazon. Odds are good you'll be able to get it. Getting bent out of shape and throwing a tantrum isnt going to do either you or them anything good.

Yeah, the saleswoman kept hunting around behind the counter and would periodically raise her head to say, "Just swipe your card!" I replied with, "Not until I see an art book on this counter!" She went into the back room for ten minutes, probably had a smoke to calm her nerves, and then came back out.

And I didn't throw a tantrum. First, she tried to convince me that the game came out last week, which it didn't. Then, she said I didn't come in within 48 hours, which was wrong because their automated line just called me yesterday to let me know that the game was in, so I believe she was in the wrong here and didn't want to accept blame.

I simply explained to her that it sucks that she and the rest of her Gamestop cronies need to assault their customers with a cacophony of pre-order suggestions just to keep their jobs, and I said that she had two choices: (a) putting my $5 back on my debit card or (b) giving me the $5 back in cash because I didn't want her to think I was a satisfied customer. I also said that I knew that it didn't make a difference about whether I was a satisfied customer or not since the millions of Grand Theft Auto and Madden fans are the ones who keep Gamestop open so they don't have to file Chapter 11.

As far as I know, this is still America, and I still have freedom of choice about whether or not I want to go through with a transaction where a corporation doesn't want to provide me with everything they promised. Not providing a pre-order bonus that you baited as an incentive for me to pre-order is just bad business, in my opinion.

[Kitsune Sniper]

I had a similar situation a while back. I wanted to buy one of those Metal Slug Anthology (PS2) reprints that popped up in Gamestop. I noticed my store had one in stock, so I went to the store and asked if they had a copy. They said yes. Then I said I wanted it and they said the game was at an employee's house.

I stared at them and left. And then I got it off Gamestop.com for twelve bucks shipped.

I haven't bought anything worth more than three bucks there since.

[PapaStu]

I've in-store pre-ordered stuff from GS/EB stores before (before and after the merge) and had this happen. Was I upset? Yes. Do I know if the store even got enough to cover the pre-orders? No clue, but I know this is often the case that they didn't even get enough to cover orders.

What I have done since then though has gotten me my special item ever time. I order it online. Either Amazon or GS online orders (if done before the game releases) that mention the special goodies when you order it will give them to you. Sometimes a game might be delayed a day or two in shipping out (seems to happen to amazon) but i'll be damned if I don't get my goodies using this method.

[Daria]

I'f I'm dead set on buying a game for it's pre-order bonus I will always buy it online. Even Gamestop.com is guaranteed to ship with your items. Although these days I'm much more likely to buy from Amazon. The stores either don't get them on time, or the employees keep them.

Now if I miss out on a pre-order I know Gamestops good to just ask them for it. Because obviously they aren't going to the people that actually bought the game.

[exit]

I thought the preorders got a book and an extra CD. Right?

I didn't even know the book was for pre-orders, my friend just asked the girl behind the counter and she said that they never received any. The soundtrack is included with the game, much like with Persona 3, which makes me wonder why Atlus didn't just pack it all together like they did with Persona 3. Maybe it just cost too much, or maybe they didn't want to go through that fiasco they did last year and delay the game a week because the book spine was shabby.

[mailman187666]

I pre-ordered off of amazon but I used the super saver shipping or whatever. I also ordered one of those social link packages that comes with the extra CD and calendar and whatnot. I haven't gotten them in yet unfortunately because I went with the free shipping.

[heybtbm]

I picked up my pre-order yesterday and the guy at the counter handed me the artbook. I had no idea what it was or that it was a pre-order bonus. I thought it was a free copy of Game Informer or something.

When I got home I put the artbook in a box in my basement with all the other pre-order crap I could care less about. I really should go through that box and start selling some of that stuff on ebay. One man's trash is another's treasure I guess.

[Sudo]

I didn't even know the book was for pre-orders, my friend just asked the girl behind the counter and she said that they never received any. The soundtrack is included with the game, much like with Persona 3, which makes me wonder why Atlus didn't just pack it all together like they did with Persona 3. Maybe it just cost too much, or maybe they didn't want to go through that fiasco they did last year and delay the game a week because the book spine was shabby.

The art book is physically too big to include with the game. It's the size of a comic book or magazine.

[Nature Boy]

Not providing a pre-order bonus that you baited as an incentive for me to pre-order is just bad business, in my opinion.

Totally agree.

And I'd be totally pissed - I think pre-orders are an absolute joke unless you want the goody (and the last goody I thought was worth it was for Wind Waker).

$5 to guarantee you'll have a game for me to buy? Please. I'll wait until I'm ready to buy it, then either find it online or pick it up somewhere else. It's not like every 3rd store in the mall doesn't sell games these days. Plus if I look around I'll possibly find it $5+ cheaper somewhere else.

$5 towards a game I want, in exchange for a goody, I'm cool with. But if I gave 'em my money and didn't get my goody I'd feel robbed.

I still think the whole "GTA/Madden" comment and the rest of it sounded a little heavy handed though. Or at the very least elitest.

[heybtbm]

I think pre-orders are an absolute joke unless you want the goody (and the last goody I thought was worth it was for Wind Waker).

That probably was the best pre-order incentive of all time. It single handedly brought me into that generation of consoles.

[eskobar]

i hate the "SUBJECT TO AVAILABILITY" legal protection.

I've never had trouble with gamestop about pre-order bonus gifts but i do know that some gamestops receive more items than they need ... that breaks the balance for the availability of the bonus.

I have a friend in Mexico that gets WAY MANY preorder bonuses for free, he has a friend on a Houston, TX gamestop and every month he sends a list with the current releases and buy them directly through the manager of GS.

Is is strange that some stores did not receive the artbook because the production of it must be huge if even GAME CRAZY offers it without pre-ordering.

But, guys; the AMAZING ATLUS/AMAZON duo is reason enough to stop buying at GAMESTOP. Amazon has better prices (P4 costed 34.99 with artbook + 29.99 for social link exp, free ship) and the customer service is top.

you guys should check the offers amazon has ... :

Persona 3 FES with artbook and soundtrack (Package very similar to the first persona 3) for 23.01 ..

Eternal Poison 27.07 usd ... it was released on nov 15 and still retails for 39.99 at GS

[josekortez]

I still think the whole "GTA/Madden" comment and the rest of it sounded a little heavy handed though. Or at the very least elitest.

Elitist? Maybe. Truthful? Yes.

Whatever your opinion is on what makes a person a "hardcore" gamer or a "mainstream" gamer, you have to agree that Gamestop only gets a small percentage of people who pre-order a boutique game like Persona 4 while the whole world plays GTA or Madden, which gives GS an easier opportunity to sucker those people into pre-ordering GTA or Madden. Personally, I don't waste time with Madden, and I stopped buying GTA on day one after the series became as derivative as it currently is. At the start of the next generation of machines, there will be dozens of used copies of GTA 4 littering the PS3 and 360 shelves at Gamestop.

To clarify what I meant by my GTA and Madden statement is that my one dissatisfactory customer interaction with them over a boutique game like Persona 4 isn't going to make a dent in the company's practices that will probably continue to dissatisfy customers for years to come.

But yes, we all know that Gamestop doesn't care about the hardcore gamers who have helped the company to keep their stores open long enough for them to swoop in, swallow EB Games whole and become a veritable monopoly. And yes, you don't have to shop at Gamestop. You can go to Best Buy, Circuit City, K-Mart, Sears, Target, Toys R Us, Walmart, etc. for most mainstream releases, but these aren't specialized video game retailers and they usually don't have pre-order bonuses since video games aren't their main source of revenue.

Once again, I'm just stating my opinion along with some pure facts to back it up.

And my only regret during my short tirade is that I didn't lump the Halo fans in along with the GTA and Madden people.

[lendelin]

A pre-order guarantee for a bonus item is a deal and should be kept, GS did clearly something wrong in particular in your case becasue you value the artbook.

My advice however: look around for the best deal. I'm not a pre-order guy, I'm usually too cheap for that, but in this case for various reasons I did pre-order it.

It's easy to find out where the best deal is. Why would I pay $40 plus taxes and have the trouble picking the item up in a store when Amazon offered it weeks before up to the last minute $3 cheaper without taxes (plus free shipping) and sends it conveniently to your house?

...and DP is also a way to find easily the best deals. In a thread dedicated to PS2 RPGs I pointed out two weeks ago that the Amazon deal is by far the best for guys who want the game right away. (not to mention that Amazon is very reliable when it comes to pre-order bonuses)

Same goes for guides, btw. If you want one pretty early and don't want to wait until you get it for $5 and cheaper then Amazon is for years the best place to shop. No $19.99 prices in store, the guides drop very fast to $10 - $13, no taxes, free shipping. I can't even remember when I bought a guide in a store unless it was on clearance, or in special cases like the hardcover Twilight Princess guide ($30) Best Buy sold for $10 one month after its release.

Be cheap. It pays off.

[animesuperj]

Most of the time Gamestops won't even get enough pre-order bonus material to cover the amount of pre-orders they got in. Case in point was the Persona 4 art book. I think my Gamestop got 4 of them in, and I know they had more pre-orders than that. Also, Gamestop's will get the pre-order stuff in BEFORE a game is released. I know my Gamestop got the Persona 4 book about a week earlier. Go to the store you pre-order from a couple days before the game is released and ask if they got the bonus stuff in, then tell them you reserved it (which they can check) and tell them you want your bonus. If they're not jerks, they should give it to you.

Also, if they're out of bonus material when the day the game is released, it's a good chance that employees took the bonus stuff without buying the game. Happens with the better stuff like art books and soundtracks.

[Nature Boy]

Elitist? Maybe. Truthful? Yes.
....
And my only regret during my short tirade is that I didn't lump the Halo fans in along with the GTA and Madden people

You are angry at Gamestop for not delivering, right? Not the people that happen to purchase or like Madden/Halo/GTA who had nothing to do with the transaction?

That's why I thought it was heavy handed. Doesn't matter if it's true or not.

I'd be mad at Gamestop too, regardless of whether or not the publisher shipped all they thought they could.

If they *know* they're going to get short shipped on a goody, all they'd have to do is tell me when I'm pre-ordering.

I might take the chance anyway, or I might walk away, but at least they're giving me the choice at the time of purchase. Taking my money and then blaming the publisher afterwards is *not* cool to me.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Well I wanted to get the Social Expansion thingy but guess what? Amazon's out of stock. I had no idea what it was until now...

And now scalpers are selling it for $150.

Fuck.

[The 1 2 P]

Gamestop is like the George W Bush of game stores. For all their shady ass practices and broken promises--people keep going back there to shop. As horrible a job as Bush did his first 4 years, the majority of the US just voted him back in to continue the carnage. I don't mean to turn this into a political rant or get side tracked, but if the majority of us dislike Gamestop so much then we really need to stop dealing with them.

[Princess-Isabela]

gamestops are truly garbage places to go to,
people who work there are douches for the most part.
prices are bad too, just buy stuff online(amazon for example) - solid customer service, plenty of product and you'll be in the clear.

[Damaniel]

I ordered my copy of Persona 4 from Amazon the day after it came out, and they sent a copy of the art book with it. I wasn't expecting that, but it was a nice bonus.

I *had* pre-ordered the game from Gamestop, but none of my local ones could find my pre-order in their system, and unfortunately I had lost the receipt. That's the third time in the last few months that a Gamestop employee had screwed up a pre-order -- one reserved Fallout 3 for me instead of Fable 2 (I caught this one the same day), and one reserved Tales of Desperaux(!) instead of Tales of Vesperia. I didn't catch the second one at all and since the store didn't have extras, I had to get it from somewhere else.

I've tried to do pre-orders from Gamestop to help the sales people meet their quotas, but many of them are so incompetent these days that I'll probably stop bothering to.

[The 1 2 P]

That's the third time in the last few months that a Gamestop employee had screwed up a pre-order -- one reserved Fallout 3 for me instead of Fable 2 (I caught this one the same day), and one reserved Tales of Desperaux(!) instead of Tales of Vesperia.

Those are the kinds of mistakes you'd expect parents and grandparents to make. But employees of a game store? Making rookie mistakes like this? Reminds me of the time two Gamestop employees tried arguing with a woman that the Final Fantasy series was never on the XBox 360. Luckily I was there to put them both in their place with a mocking "you work here and you didn't even know this series came out on this system?" Just shows the kind of GS employees I'm use to:frustrated:

[josekortez]

I got my copy of Persona 4 with the art book yesterday from Amazon, and it came in less than a week with the free shipping. If there's another game that I just have to have as soon as it comes out, I'll give Amazon my business from now on. Good deal!

[Kitsune Sniper]

I got my copy of Persona 4 with the art book yesterday from Amazon, and it came in less than a week with the free shipping. If there's another game that I just have to have as soon as it comes out, I'll give Amazon my business from now on. Good deal!

Check this: I preordered it a day before the release date. I was told it would ship -today-, but they shipped it last week and it arrived at my post office on SATURDAY. Now that's good service.

[mailman187666]

Well I wanted to get the Social Expansion thingy but guess what? Amazon's out of stock. I had no idea what it was until now...

And now scalpers are selling it for $150.

Fuck.

I just got my social expansion thing in the mail yesterday along with the game and had no idea that they would sell out so quickly. Mine came with the art book as well as the rest of the items no problem. Amazon is pretty good I think.

[esquire]

Gamestop is like the George W Bush of game stores.

So does that mean the OP should've thrown his shoe at the store clerk when they wouldn't give him his artbook? ROFL

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

The following is a fact.

I state this information (which may be blatantly obvious to some) not as a swipe at Gamestop employees (as I was a Funcoland manager for many many years) but ... simply as a statement of fact.

Employees of Game Stop, EB, (and any other retail chain that get "pre-order" bonus merch) take the stuff for themselves.

Due to the fact that more often than not (and especially in the case of books, shirts, and other non-game-disc/cartridge merch) the stuff is not for sale, not inventoried, and there is no "punishment" for doing so.

While I was occasionally guilty of doing so myself with bonus merch, I only ever did it in the case of HUGE quantities of the bonus merch (where we got more than enough to fill all the needs of the pre-orders) ... but that's not to say that there aren't managers out there taking that SINGLE copy of a P4 art book home instead of giving it to the only in-store customer who pre-ordered.

And of course, not every manager/employee partakes in this. But there are probably more that do than do not.

It's a tough fact to deal with ... but a fact none the less.

[josekortez]

The following is a fact.

I state this information (which may be blatantly obvious to some) not as a swipe at Gamestop employees (as I was a Funcoland manager for many many years) but ... simply as a statement of fact.

Employees of Game Stop, EB, (and any other retail chain that get "pre-order" bonus merch) take the stuff for themselves.

Yeah, when I originally suggested that, the manager and the associate on duty at Gamestop that night were quick to respond by saying, "Oh, never, we never take any of the bonus items home!"

Yeah, right...

[Jisho23]

Yeah, when I originally suggested that, the manager and the associate on duty at Gamestop that night were quick to respond by saying, "Oh, never, we never take any of the bonus items home!"

Yeah, right...

Thats such a crock...

This is why I avoid Gamestop/EB as much as I can, if only to not be harassed about pre-ordering. I got my Persona 4, with the god damned artbook.

[Iron Draggon]

I've in-store pre-ordered stuff from GS/EB stores before (before and after the merge) and had this happen. Was I upset? Yes. Do I know if the store even got enough to cover the pre-orders? No clue, but I know this is often the case that they didn't even get enough to cover orders.

What I have done since then though has gotten me my special item ever time. I order it online. Either Amazon or GS online orders (if done before the game releases) that mention the special goodies when you order it will give them to you. Sometimes a game might be delayed a day or two in shipping out (seems to happen to amazon) but i'll be damned if I don't get my goodies using this method.

NEVER trust Gamestop to give you your preorder bonus items! Here's why:

I preordered Grid for the PC at Gamestop.com hoping that by using the online method I wouldn't get screwed out of the bonus swag by them like I always have before when placing preorders in one of their offline store locations...

WRONG!

what happened was they cancelled my preorder after delaying it for days, and when I called to find out why, they gave me some lame-ass excuse about the address on my credit card not matching the address on file with my bank, and claimed they had emailed me about it to tell me that if I didn't correct this situation somehow within 48 hours they would cancel my order... but I never got any such email, and I never had any such issues placing preorders with the exact same credit card with Amazon.com during that same time... I also checked with my bank, and there were no such issues with my credit card... Gamestop literally just randomly picked me out of the crowd to screw me out of my preorder swag, because their advice to remedy the situation at that point was to place the order again, which of course wouldn't be a preorder anymore, because the game had already been released...

BOYCOTT GAMESTOP, ONLINE & OFFLINE!

as for Amazon, they've gotten really bad about not getting enough copies to fulfill all their preorders in stock to ship them all on the actual release days, and I haven't preordered anything from them that was supposed to get me some bonus swag yet, but at least I have always gotten the games, and never gotten some lame-ass excuse for canceling my preorder from them... I did end up cancelling my preorder for SCORE International Baja 1000 from them though, because they still didn't have it in stock yet for days after release, while other Amazon merchants had it in stock and for alot less...

so my experience placing preorders with Amazon hasn't been much better lately either... when I canceled that one preorder, it was after several preorders placed with them had all shipped days after their release dates, while other Amazon merchants had the games in stock for less on release day... and I was only able to cancel it because they hadn't started processing it yet... otherwise, I still would've been stuck paying more to wait longer for it, as I was for the last few preorders I placed with them...

but I'll still use Amazon for preorders in the future, because it's the easiest way to find all the games I want and pay for them ahead of time, so I can keep up with all the latest releases by staying ahead of them all... and I don't even have to leave my house to do it... that's the best part... I click a button on my mouse, and games come right to my door... perfect shopping!

so one of these days, we'll see if Amazon treats me any better for preorder bonuses... I would've placed my preorder for Grid with them, and at least gotten the bonus codes that I was supposed to get along with the free tshirt that I was supposed to get from Gamestop, but they didn't offer the tshirt, that was a Gamestop exclusive... which makes me even more pissed off at Gamestop, because they actually bribe game developers out of these sort of exclusive deals, just so they can randomly fuck their customers out of them! so I haven't bought anything from Gamestop since, and I never will again!

[esquire]

I ordered my copy of Persona 4 from Amazon the day after it came out, and they sent a copy of the art book with it. I wasn't expecting that, but it was a nice bonus.

I *had* pre-ordered the game from Gamestop, but none of my local ones could find my pre-order in their system, and unfortunately I had lost the receipt. That's the third time in the last few months that a Gamestop employee had screwed up a pre-order -- one reserved Fallout 3 for me instead of Fable 2 (I caught this one the same day), and one reserved Tales of Desperaux(!) instead of Tales of Vesperia. I didn't catch the second one at all and since the store didn't have extras, I had to get it from somewhere else.

I've tried to do pre-orders from Gamestop to help the sales people meet their quotas, but many of them are so incompetent these days that I'll probably stop bothering to.

I ordered mine from Amazon on 12/14 and got it for $36.99, $3 cheaper and it came with the art book yesterday 12/19. I also recently ordered R-Type Command for $9.99 and received the R-9 Model pre-order bonus as well. Eternal Poison is already down to $25 from $39.99 retail. As far as Atlus games are concerned, there is no reason to shop anywhere else than Amazon.