Despite the brief opening for the Pre-orders of the SNES Classic last Friday, Walmart received a huge amount of responses from the public. It only took half an hour before the pre-orders were sold out. The following day, some users started filing complaints that Walmart has canceled their requests.
What happened?
Walmart became part of the trending news last week when it was reported that they would be the first retailer to accept pre-orders of the SNES Classic in the United States. As reports of cancellation broke out, the company says the move was a bit premature.
Some users aired their disappointment in forums and sites to share the news about cancellations. Some said they received emails saying their claimed payments could not be verified. However, most of the buzz was due to a screenshot posted on Twitter documenting a conversation between a customer and one of Walmart's service representatives. In the exchange, the employee responded that the pre-orders went live by accident.
if you think you preordered a snes classic, you didn't #SNESClassic pic.twitter.com/FESGnAM8rE
— dr wily, dds (@benjamin_bear) July 22, 2017
Other users also started posting screenshots of their dialogue with Walmart staff members. However, the same response is provided, leaving no room for any other explanation except a system glitch.
Missed opportunity
Naturally, people were excited when the pre-orders were made available. Most customers clamored to get their hands on the opportunity. This could have been the perfect experience of checking out an item without having to go through stock depletion and site crashing due to too much traffic.
Unfortunately, Walmart was not able to deliver on this potential.
The negative feedback coming from customers are mostly rooted in disappointment and confusion. Others think it is a weird justification because not everyone's pre-orders were canceled. If it was a system glitch, many believe all requests should have been taken out as well. However, it is also possible that a premature go-live of the link does not necessarily mean canceling all pre-orders.
At the end of the day, it is Walmart's discretion.
There were also posts that came out reflecting on the trouble caused by NES Classic, Nintendo's previous throwback console. It can be recalled that there was a shortage of its supply, which caused a lot of customers to be frustrated and disappointed with the console brand. Nevertheless, Nintendo declared at the onset that the SNES Classic will be a limited item. Hopefully, Walmart and other retailers find a way to bring enough stocks to the consumer market.
