This is my live chat session with Amazon.com's Customer Service:

Me: I pre-ordered my copy of Fallout: New Vegas Collector's edition on October 1, 2010 and chose release date shipping. It is the 19th (Release date) And my order STILL has not shipped. It says "Not yet shipped". I have not received the charge for the game yet either. What's going on? I am expecting this to arrive tomorrow and no later, as are most customers with "Release Date Shipping". Please ship it out as soon as possible.

Deepti: Hello, my name is Deepti. I'm sorry that it hasn't shipped yet.

Me: Hello. But is there anything that can be done about it? This is rather alarming.

Deepti: I'm sorry *name removed* but, this game is not in stock now.

Me: Er, meaning I pre-ordered my copy too late?

Me: I assumed Amazon would have enough copies to cover all pre-orders.

Me: Especially for release date shipping.

Deepti: I'm so sorry but, it seems there were limited quantity. We hope it'll be back in stock again and for the inconvenience we'll issue the refund for the shipping charges.

Me: I see. This is rather disappointing, considering it was in stock and available when I pre-ordered it on October 1st. Release date shipping was available at that time as well and so was the pre-order bonus. How was my copy not one of the first to be shipped? Favoritism amongst customers? I suppose you guys drew straws (With Fallout: New Vegas Collector's Edition order numbers on them) at random and chose customers each time based on the shortest straw. I'm guessing I didn't quite make the cut.

Me: In the future, Amazon should stock more copies than is necessary. This should be predictable and well-anticipated for such big game releases. It's a no-brainer, really.

Deepti: There were lots of orders for this game.

Me: I understand that...

Deepti: I'll definitely forward your feedback to the inventory department.

Me: Thank you for your assistance in attempting to resolve and rectify this matter, but that is not quite the result or action I was expecting to be taken.

Me: I'm going to go ahead and cancel my pre-order. Thanks and take it sleazy!

*clicks "End Chat"*

It looks like a lot of us who pre-ordered the CE of Fallout: New Vegas from Amazon.com will be getting nicely shafted in the same manner that I did. So much for getting the CE AND the Tribal Pack pre-order bonus. :-/

To those of you Amazon.com customers whose Fallout: New Vegas CE pre-order is already shipping and on the way...

YOU LUCKY BASTARDS! >:-(

But... I hope you enjoy the game on behalf of us poor souls who didn't/can't, ha ha ha ha! I can't hate on you guys, more power to you.

I'm guessing this... "Deepti"... Probably doesn't care and considered it just another pre-order complaint/rant and nothing to sweat over. Dude's probably laughing and smiling all the way to the bank. Haaaaaa...

Is anyone else as really disappointed as I am with this since they REALLY dropped the ball on this one? Speak your mind and post your experiences so far.

I'm mad.

How come? Does yours also say "Not yet shipped" as well?

That's ridiculous.

They -knew- how many preorders were placed. At best they should have known exactly how many they would need, at worst they COULD have sent you a message. That you had to contact THEM to find out what was going on is just lame.

Mine's shipped, but then again I am PRIME - perhaps I'm on the A list :cryvaultboy:

Yep.

w0rd, this is true. They never sent me an e-mail or message of any sort. It's the least they could've done.

I'm just disappointed that I won't be getting my CE from a website I usually trust and have no problems with as well as the fact that I don't get the Tribal Pack bonus.

I pre-ordered it for Xbox 360, by the way.

From what I know, each store/retailer is only allocated a limited number of Collecters Editions. For the most part when they're gone, they're gone.

You made the big mistake of waiting until the month of release before ordering it. Thats just asking for them to be sold out, all the CEs they had in stock would have been allocated as people pre-ordered them.


And quite frankly, how would they now how many pre-orders would be made? I didn't realise Amazon could see into the future.

I'm sure Amazon knew that this was going to be a big release. I would've expected them to be a bit more proactive.

I usually preorder games from Amazon, but I'm glad I didn't this time. I preordered the CE from Walmart last week and I just got a email saying it was shipped so I guess Walmart got more in stock which is very odd.

I put my pre-order in a whopping 2 days ago, and mine shipped. From the same vendor...

As well, you don't own a huge retail chain do you? They have -TONS- of tools out there to project sales. There's no excuse for this.

* - I don't own one, but I've had to help support people who "run" such businesses. I say "run" as it's clearly luck that keeps them afloat.

yea trust me, as a former customer service rep that person really didnt give two [censored] that your game didnt get shipped. they have probably been dealing with the same complaint all day from 10000 other people in the same boat as you. i know once you hear the same thing all day its hard to really give a crap about any one individual. i will however commend you because you didnt go off...had it been me dealing with customer service i would have flipped out.
i preordered mine through gamestop and the code for the classic pack isnt working on ps3...and on top of that the future dlc for this game will be xbox exclusive for the time being, just like fallout 3.
they are lucky this game is pretty good, otherwise i would take it back and tell them to stick it. im not to happy with my preorder experiance either, although i cant complain because i have the option to play the game, though i am going to wait to see if the code works later on today before i really get into it, the strategy guide is worth a look if you havent gotten it..its pretty big with over half a million words..they say it is bigger than most novels..i got the collectors edition guide and it is about 480 pages...from playing the game and seeing all the new stuff they added i would recommend getting it. you an make items/cook food/mod weapons and some things dont work like they did in fallout 3 anymore, like magazines no longer add a permanent point to your skill, its a temporary thing now that wears off like a drug..makes no sense to me.
sorry to hear your luck, cancel your preorder and pick up a copy at another retailer in person, svcks that you lose the bonus but who knows if it would work anyways.

Uh, that's fine and all, but there's no need for the attitude and go looking to pick a fight or whatever it is you're trying to do.

To be fair I HAD to wait until October 1st for my check, THAT is why I pre-ordered it on that day. I didn't even know about New Vegas until late September. So I think it's forgivable in my case.

As for how they would know? It's not a Crystal Ball method... Hint: It's how much the previous games sold as well as how big/how much other games sell as well. They should know that the gaming industry is quite profitable and big indeed. Thus they should know to stock up on more than usual for big name games and releases. It's not that hard to figure out even from a business standpoint as well.

ah man this brings me back to my days working repair at compUSA... decided to never do anything customer service related after that lol