LogFAQs > #929801062

Also, found this on Reddit......

TL;DR: retailers don't know exact inventory when preorder links go live. A lot of us are going to be disappointed.

Now I want to clear up some things about preorders, especially as it pertains to video games like this, because after reading some of the comments in other threads it looks like some people may be in the dark as to how this works. Please also note that this should not be read as dogma; some of this I'm 100% sure about, other stuff are conclusions I've drawn given logic and evidence/past experience.

When preorders go live, retailers like Best Buy, Gamestop, Target, Walmart, most likely also Amazon etc., do not know how much actual physical stock of an item they will receive by release date. Often times they oversell. For every hyped up release where preorders are available, people get screwed. They oversell preorders and no one is able to figure it out until it comes time for the order to be fulfilled and the fulfillment centers do not receive the amount of the product that the retailer expected. My conclusion (again I am not 100% but it makes sense to me): people that placed their orders earlier are more likely to receive their orders. At some point, the stock doesn't exist anymore, and the next person on the descending list of "order time" (and every person after them) is either not charged or refunded and then notified "we're sorry for the inconvenience, but please go fuck yourself... etc."

I fall into the category of risky orders. I did not have the money when preorders went live in May, and I set up alerts on nowinstock.net to tell me when the CE was in stock. In-stock alerts, in my mind, could be triggered by at least 2 things: a glitch or anomaly in the online inventory system when it resets/conducts regular maintenance, or someone actually cancelled an order and there will actually be stock available. Even then, it may just go to the next person on the list mentioned above, who knows? (Maybe someone more knowledgeable in e-commerce than I am can clear some of my assumptions up.) Long story not-so-short, I cancelled a Walmart order because I figured an Amazon preorder would be more reliable, given that Amazon is strictly e-commerce. Now I'm questioning that decision, although it probably would not have mattered. My order was placed on Saturday, my card has been charged, it still has not shipped, however there is an Amazon warehouse locally so maybe it just ships tomorrow. Guess we will see.

Edit: u/kevsmith6262 confirmed that Amazon does function with a "who ordered when" list, and also noted that the Amazon rep advised not to change anything about your order (payment, probably shipping address even, basically anything), because that will drop you to the bottom of the queue.
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