I’m just one of many people who had a rather unpleasant experience regarding myNintendo Switch 2pre-order, which I thought had secured me a new system months ago, butI got off relatively easily by not being one of the people who were sold a console with a hole in it. New console launches are always chaos, and thepre-order process in April was a disaster, but I was lucky enough to slip through the digital queues and dodge enough website errors to secure a Switch 2 – or so I thought.
Thelaunch day slate for the Switch 2is admittedly bare-bones (Dry Bones?). On the one hand, the only exclusive of particular note is a newMario Kart; on the other, it’s a newMario Kart. My wife and I have playedMario Kart 8 Deluxetogether regularly throughout the Switch’s entire lifespan, and afterMario Kart Worldwas revealed, she said something along the lines of, “open-world Mario Kart was basically my dream game as a child.” We had to get a Switch 2. And we thought we got one. UntilWalmart canceled our pre-order on June 4, the day before it was supposed to arrive.
Walmart Canceled My Pre-Order After Insisting There Were No Issues
Payment Issue? What Payment Issue?
I joined probably millions of others late at night in April hoping to secure a Switch 2 pre-order, tabs open for Best Buy, Target, and Walmart on two separate laptops. I eventually got through Walmart’s baffling queue, put a Switch 2 andMario Kart Worldbundle in my cart, and managed to get through payment with little issue aside from some very slow loading.
For the next month-and-a-half, I regularly checked the status of my order, and was always met with a stalwart “Placed” on the order summary screen. About a week prior to today – the Switch 2’s launch day, June 5 – we received an email saying there was an issue with our payment. We called customer service, andthey said it was a widespread issue, an error mistakenly sent out to “everyone"who ordered a Switch 2 from Walmart. I didn’t necessarily believe the hyperbole, but according to them, our pre-order was still set.
We got the same email a couple of days later, and went through the same song and dance: widespread issue, mistaken error, pre-order still placed. I was a little nervous, but we’d done our due diligence – a hold charge was showing on the bank account, the pre-order still said it was placed, andWalmart itself told me everything was fine (twice!).
Yesterday morning, June 4, Walmart sent a text to my wife, who was busy at work, saying a payment issue needed to be resolved or else our pre-order would be canceled. Only 15 minutes later, Walmart canceled the pre-order. We were told there was nothing to be done, that they were out of stock, even thoughthe entire ordeal was, in my opinion, a massive blunder on Walmart’s part.
I was back in the rat race, joining everyone else who couldn’t secure a pre-order in grasping at the unclaimed stock at various retailers. I finally managed to place an order for a Switch 2 at Costco (shoutout the $1.50 hot dog combo), but the delivery estimate says it’ll arrive on Monday, June 9. Oh well, I hear patience is a virtue.At least my Switch 2 will (hopefully) arrive without a staple being put through its screen, which can’t be said for every system that was received on launch day.
A GameStop On Staten Island Accidentally Stapled Multiple Switch 2 Screens
Talk About A Secure Pre-Order
One of the more unfortunately entertaining storylines to come out of the Switch 2 launch was many people getting home from midnight releases to realizea staple had broken their new console’s screen before they could even pull it out of the box. PerIGN, certain GameStop locations – one confirmed to be on Staten Island, New York – took to securing customers' receipts to the Switch 2 packaging with a staple.
The staples passed through the cardboard, pierced the plastic film surrounding the Switch 2 itself, and put a hole or dent in the handheld’s screen. Consumers took to social media to share pictures of their punctured purchases. In a reply to their original post, Twitter userOadhanlamented the difficulty in acquiring a replacement: “I’m gonna have to wait 3 months for the restock.”
A Reddit post from userKonflickwas removed by the GameStop subreddit mods because it contained information on the exact store, but the comments indicate that this potentially happened to everyone who pre-ordered from that location –maybe hundreds of Switch 2s now have punctured screens.
Nintendo hasn’t escaped blame either.Many are calling out the platform holder’s odd packaging, with the console’s screen up against the cardboard and only a thin layer of plastic protecting it. I recall my original Switch being packaged fairly securely, and my PlayStation 5 came wrapped in all sorts of cardboard and foam shapes never before seen by humans. TheSwitch 2’s high pricewas a point of contention, and Nintendo hasn’t even bothered to ship it like the premium product it is.
Switch 2 Woes Are Frustrating, But Who’s To Blame?
Don’t Take It Out On Retail Workers
I’m rightfully upset about my Switch 2 pre-order being canceled after assurances to the contrary, and others are rightfully upset that a small piece of metal has been mechanically driven through their brand-new console’s touch screen, butthey’re difficult situations because it’s not immediately clear who is at fault and what can be done about it. Such disasters are likely a very small percentage of Switch 2 transactions on and around launch day; an untold number of people are enjoying their new system right now.
I don’t blame the Walmart customer service folks – sure, they told me everything was fine when it clearly wasn’t (again, twice!), but they probably didn’t know either. Yes, there is a GameStop employee who personally stapled all those receipts onto Switch 2 screens, but they didn’t know Nintendo would package them in such an obviously bone-headed manner. High-profile product launches are a nightmare for people working in retail, soit wouldn’t help anything for me to berate someone over the phone when it was likely a system error.
As if I needed any more reasons, I have a legitimate grievance with Walmart as a corporation, and now its punishment is that it doesn’t get the 500-some dollars I was going to fork over for the Switch 2Mario Kart Worldbundle. It’s a drop in the bucket for the multi-billion-dollar, multinational conglomerate, but still, I’ll probably remember this in the future and spend my money elsewhere. GameStop, as a corporation, needs to address the issue and replace the broken systems;there’s no need for a worker to catch flak over an honest mistake, even if it was relatively disastrous.
New console launches are supposed to be an exciting time, and they are, but they’re frequently plagued with exceptionally frustrating problems. It was like pulling teeth trying to get a PlayStation 5 in 2020 with the (unavoidable) chip shortage and the (largely avoidable) scalpers, and theNintendo Switch 2has been similarly grating five years later. Retail workers aren’t to blame, though; it’s the companies that offer a hollow apology and deny any wrongdoing before turning around to take someone else’s money that are at fault.
Sources:IGN,Oadhan/Twitter
Nintendo Switch 2
The Nintendo Switch 2 is the successor to Nintendo Switch, scheduled for release in 2025. Confirmed as backwards compatible, it will play both physical and digital Nintendo Switch games. A full reveal is pencilled in for June 21, 2025.
