Their relaunch idea is horrible. They couldn't competantly handle the first launch. Now they want to do it again.

The local paper had a front page story today that said Best Buy would have 360's in on the 18th. I expect another madhouse with everyone and their dog camping out.

Are they really going to make any more money with a relaunch? I could see more people getting pissed and leaving with noting if they do not get a 360, especially if they camped out for hours. Is their Pro system the premium or is this one that has a bunch of other stuff with it?

Yep I agree. Contrary to what Microsoft claims, they are eating this media publicity up.

I'm sure they just want to make sure they can get enough of everything so they can create and force bundles on people.

Any word on the number of units release so far and/or this shipment?

Hmmm not sure what you are referring to, but I'm talking about Best Buy. MS has nothing to do what what BB is going to do again.

Complete with tons of people who will camp overnight only to wake up and find out there weren't enough machines for everyone because management didn't inform them the night before they only have 20 of them to sell. Then having some idiot maverick manager disregard the ticket system the head nerd devised, chaos ensues.

Informing the general public of your inventory of the highest demand item in the world is like putting up a neon sign saying "please rob us".

Yep I agree with you about BB's relaunch plans. I won't buy the 360 at Best Buy at this point. Sorry for the confusion!

I was also referring to the news sometime ago that Best Buy was going to be the main retail partner for Microsoft with the 360. They were also rumored to be getting more consoles than other stores, irrelevant or not. Now, Microsoft keeps claiming they are coming in weekly "all over the place" and to keep checking shelves.

Seems kind of odd to me that MS would keep saying "check the stores everyday ect ..." when their main retail partner are saying middle of Dec relaunch. Now I'm not an expert but it seems the left and right hand are not singing the same story here. At the very least, MS made a poor choice in picking BB as the Zero Hour retail partner, however, as I said in my earlier post, I wouldn't put it past MS to plan it with BB. It is after all, their "retail partner". The publicity only helps keep them rolling strong after X-mas.

Well, for better or for worse a friend and I are going to meet up at a local Target to see if they got anything tomorrow morning. Both of us have classes so we’re not going too far out of our way. Maybe we’ll get lucky, though I’m not getting my hopes up.

As I understand it, BB isn't the main retail partner, they were the "launch" partner. After the launch there is no main retail partner. However I could be wrong. Either way, BB sucked balls on the launch too, so the "launch" partner thing was a joke. Besided it sounded like Walmart was a slightly better place to get it at launch since you could walk out with it at midnight versus camping out.

I'm guessing that since BB wants to put the 360 in their ads, they need stock on that particular item, which means holding at least 20. Perhaps they are actually going to advertise a bundle?

I was at my Comic Book Store and they had brand new Core and Hard drive 360's in stock believe it or not. However....


they were priced at 799 and 899 respectively. Not as bad as ebay but still regawd-damn-diculous.

Im on my way to Target. Hopefully this Friday restocking thing is true. Ill let you guys know either way.

Good luck, cause around these here parts it appears to be a vicious rumor. Target and Wal-Mart NOTHING!

Just getting ready to leave here too. 1 Best Buy, 2 Targets, 2 Wal Marts, 2 Sears, 2 Circuit City's. If I do not find one today I am going to give up.

The Best Buys near me (Chicago) said they're going to hold ALL shipments of the 360s they receive. The manager said specifically that they won't do trickle sales.

Well, rather than drive we just called around and the Targets and Wal-Marts and are still saying "not until January or February"........

For those consumers out there who are rude simply because they are trying to find an xbox, I hear ya there. But unfortunately, this kind of logic isn't going to work for those of us who actually paid a deposit to get a system on the first launch day.

And I do feel sorry for the employees at these shops, I truly do. But they ARE paid to work and represent stores like Gamestop or EBgames. If their company blunders, they're going down with the ship.

EBgames or Gamestop, corporate wide had NO right legally to sell a pre-order without having some kind of formal documentation (as in something legally contractual) stating 'you'll be getting 'x' amount of systems on 'x' date'. What Microsoft told these retailers at corporate level was not official or legally binding, it was more of a wink and a nod. And then Microsoft changed their plans last minute to do a worldwide launch and everyone got screwed.

Microsoft shouldn't have said anything to retailers until it was set in stone, and they certainly shouldn't have changed their plans to do a worldwide launch instead.

But retailers could have avoided the mess by either waiting until they heard something concrete before guarantee-ing a lot of people for first shipments, or employees need to be trained to let customers understand they're reserving a place in line, and not a date if they don't have anything set in stone.

EBgames and Gamestop and many other pre-order places have made this mistake, and it's all actually illegal. When you put money down on something and don't recieve the promise that was supposed to be upheld (one unit on such and such a date), the retailers fault or not, it's called fraud. This is cause for anybody seriously unhappy to call the better business bureau on their local retailer.

I say I feel bad for the employees because they have to deal with this when it's not their fault, but really the policies that are brought down from corporate that causes the mess.

These stores thrive on pre-orders. With pre-orders, they can forecast sales for the quarter, and they can basically use all of our $50 deposits as interest free loans. They take your pre-order money and utilize them for future projects.

My EBgames locally sold almost 200 'guaranteed' first shipment pre-orders. That's TEN GRAND. That's ten thousand dollars in pre-order deposits ALONE that they've made off of us in that store by itself, based on the promise that 'you'll get yours on the first shipment on November 22nd 2005'... and only 40 people recieved that promise here... and now I don't see myself getting one even before Christmas. Why? Because their overzealous pre-order policy of guarantee-ing products they don't even know they'll be recieving, screwed me big time.

Now you, being in a position of working at one of these places, has a job to do... that job is to take care of the customer. Customer service doesn't mean in stressful situations being rude because 'being rude can only be understood by rude-ness right back'. I work in customer service, and you should never get snappy with a customer like that. If they raise their tone, all you can do is continue to be polite. If they continue to have a problem after doing your best to make them fully understand the issue, let them speak with a manager. If they start to swear at you, then let them know you can't help them if they're going to continue to do so, or hang up on them. No employee deserves to be treated like that. But again, if you believe rudeness can only be understood by rudeness in return, you need to re-evaluate your practices while on the clock. It's customer service. Not 'service to only those who are nice to us at the store'.

And by the way, you said unfortunately this trickles to some normal and nice customers. Well that's enough to drive any customer away from your store... forever. If you or others at your store or any other store right now for that matter, practiced proper etiquette when dealing with a customer, you could know you did your job in trying to assist the nasty people, and keep the nice people happy as well. Then you have a much smaller margin for losing good solid customers for stupid reasons.

I completely understand this is out of hand for both you and your employees. I fully understand Microsoft left you all in a very dark corner with all of this. I understand it's mostly Microsoft's fault. But that doesn't excuse the fact that those of us with guaranteed first shipment pre-orders are still waiting because we expected first shipment, due to stores giving away products that had no idea they were recieving.

I spoke with the EBgames manager at the store of my pre-order, for about twenty minutes, veyr kind and polite. I let him know everything I just told you... even that I think they do a great job, love their service normally, and that I know it's not their fault truly. These store owners and managers and employees want it all remedied just as much as we do... if not more so. He had told his district manager that when PS3 or any other future system launches, he's not going to guarantee any dates, only places in line. This guy even gave up his pre-order to move everybody up. And I'll have the same kind conversation with the district manager as well.

So let's not act like these game store corporations in their entirety aren't also to blame for this mess because there's enough blame equally to go around between these stores, and also Microsoft. Glad a store like EBgames got to use my money interest free for the last some odd months for a promise they didn't deliver on.

If they take it back, they probably would only give store credit or something since its a bundle. Im really not sure.

Your best bet is selling on ebay or take it back to wal-mart (they dont require receipts). Personally, im gonna sell the things I dont want on ebay to make my money back.

You might as well stick it out for Saturday if you don't get one today, some stores that will get them may not have them out for sale till Saturday morning.

Nothing here either. It'll be interesting to see if anyone on the West Coast can get one today since they'd be closer to the shipments than east/central.

I was at Target when they opened and nothing. Same story for the two Walmarts. At Target the stocker did say that they'd wait and stock something like that overnight, they wouldn't put it out during the day. Apparently they are worried about starting a fight if three or four people all see one unit and claim it. That's good to know. Of course, YMMV.

My Target did not get any this morning. Guy said they wouldn't get anymore until after Christmas.