One thing you might have encountered if you pre-ordered your Nintendo Switch 2 at a brick and mortar store like GameStop is having to purchase other things with your pre-order. It is an age-old tactic to make as much money as possible off your purchase, but is clearly unfair to consumers. One X user highlighted the issue at a GameStop store in Astoria, which was only selling bundles with things like screen protectors and cases etc with purchase’s. GameStop Help was alerted to the matter and has posted saying it is looking into it. That particular store is unlikely to be the only one which chose to try this tactic with Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders.
GameStop investigating stores selling Nintendo Switch 2 only in bundles
Seriously? Bundling stuff with Switch 2 pre-orders? That’s kinda shady, GameStop. Hope they sort this out fast. Just wanna play the new console without extra junk!
I am not at all surprised. Soon tthey will be hit with lawsuits on how inconsistent their corporate among Gamestop own stores rules etc are
An example is how widespread their shady practice & without fear of consequences from headquarter is when some stores paid & valued their trade-in policies GameStop stores allowed.
Didn’t experience this with the Nintendo Switch 2 pre order, but when i tried pre ordering the PS5 they was trying to force the pro membership by saying you can’t pre order unless you have a membership.
Former GameStop employee. This was a real policy from the top down, just like the bundles likely are. I recall having special SKUs for bundles. It seems likely that they were advised by management, be that Sl, DL, or RL that they should only process preorders for the Switch 2 using the bundle SKUs. This person probably spoke to someone who wasn’t the manager who was told, and believed, that the only way preorders could be made was with the pre-printed SKUs.
Even if it isn’t too down policy, Ican’t blame them very much. Another top down policy is that employees are graded weekly on how many units per purchase they sell and they’re automatically fired if they don’t meet the metric for a month.
I don’t know about the USA, but in Europe it’s like forced sales and it’s not legal….
I am from Taiwan and forced bundle is not illegal I believe…
Bundling stuff with Switch 2 pre-orders? Seriously, GameStop? That’s kinda sus. Hope they sort it out fast! Just wanna play the new console, not buy extra junk.
Ok this is truly not exactly what I’m expecting.
I have definitely seen this happen in the UK too, might have been with the Switch OLED as I think it was more recent than the Switch launch. You could only obtain the console from a particular retailer if you bought various bundles, which included stuff like controllers, shovelware games, and yeah, probably screen protectors too. It goes without saying they’re just taking advantage and forcing you to buy garbage you don’t want.
You think? This is not exactly how GameStops are suppose to be. They wanted us to pay much more for accessories that we don’t need.
It’s no wonder one Gamestop here closed permanently, whatever happened to the Gamestop motto “Power to the player” or is that not a thing anymore.
Where I’m from, we have a retailer who sold (still sells?) the Switch only with a “service” offer. They basically take out the console from its packaging, check if it’s turning on and do update the software. And you have no choice than to pay for this nonsense. 🤦♂️
Weren’t they they doing this with the PS5 and Series X/s?
During covid when supply was low, they claim to only have a few in stock but surprisingly they always had a few bundles for sale.
People who.left are stupid. The “bundles” weren’t a separate SKU and you could just cancel the items they forced you to preorder, then put that money towards the console.
Shopto in the UK did this. My pre order was pushed to a back order until they had more stock BUT ‘luckily’ for me thry had the pre-order bundle launching within a day of the email they sent me, and they’ve ‘kindly’ given me the chance to have an early shot at GETTING one of these pre-order bundles! Crazy! And here I thought they were out of stock!
Nothing new! Gamestop did it when the ps5 were scarce, and out of stock. They tried to tell me they only sell to pro members and you had to buy the bundle…I walked lol!!
Gamestop employee here. At the time, the ps5’s were a pro member only purchase. Thats a direct order from our regional managers. And the god of war bundles were all they sent us for the longest time. Some items are pro-only like the playstation portals. I literally don’t know why. It must be for thr more expensive, hard to find consoles, ig.
The store I went to just added PRP to both my console and accessories without even asking. They just used some of the money I put down to put towards their “bundle” without even asking. I went back the next day to remove this stuff and they said they couldn’t until the release day as I would have to cancel my preorder but wouldn’t recreate the order since their system was “not allowing” to recreate any system orders.
Ya I’ve been posting about this on Facebook I was forced to buy a gamestop bundle. After standing there for hours in line right before they opened a guy comes out and says the only way your allowed to purchase a switch 2 is buying a over 200 dollar gamestop bundle. I already was having issues affording this system but making me drop another 200 was extortion making me purchase something I didn’t want to. It soured my whole experience and will make me second guessing doing gamestop pre orders in the future. I of course stayed and bought a system because as we all know it’s hard to find the system so I had no choice I’m planning on reaching out to corporate but I’m going to wait tell after I get the system so I don’t have the chance of my order being canceled or something
My store did this for the PS5 early on and had all kinds of “anti-scalper” excuses, but it was pretty ridiculous.
Every Gamestop in my City shut down and I live in a really safe city. we had about fifteen or so Gamestops, they are all gone, every one.
Gamestop employees were instructed to turn away pre-orders if they didn’t include bundles.