Walmart Cancels All SNES Classic Pre-Orders Because We Can't Have Nice Things

The Walmart SNES Classic saga continues as the mega retailer announced that it "will have to cancel" all orders placed for the SNES Classic that were made on July 21. This is a result of a "technical glitch" where the listing went up by accident.

On Friday, July 21 at around 8:30 pm PT/11:30 pm EST, a pre-order page for the SNES Classic went up for about half an hour before the site crashed and stock "depleted", though considering the page was put live as a mistake there was probably no real stock to begin with.

Some customers (myself included) were notified the next day that our pre-orders were canceled due to a variety of reasons, including mistakes in payment processing. Meanwhile, other customers weren't notified of any cancellation, making some believe that only an unlucky handful of pre-orders were terminated.

Not anymore according to a Walmart email to customers. As of today, all pre-orders are cancelled. "Unfortunately, due to a technical glitch, the Super Nintendo Classic Edition as mistakenly made available last Friday evening ahead of the official release date," said Walmart's senior director for customer care, Deserie Dulaney. "We, regrettably, will have to cancel this item on your order. We know that this is incredibly disappointing to you, and we're truly sorry for this mistake." Any charges made via PayPal or gift cards will be refunded, while credit card payments haven't been charged.

No word on when the pre-orders will be back at Walmart, nor has any other retailer like Amazon or Target announced when their own pre-orders will go live. Basically, trying to get a Nintendo classic console, SNES or otherwise, continues to be a waking nightmare. I wish pre-orders would just go up properly so I at least know when I can stop hoping to get a SNES Classic pre-order.

An earlier version of this story listed the start time for the Walmart pre-orders last Friday as 7:30 pm PT. It was 8:30 pm.

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#1 BulkSlash A year ago

This problem could all go away if Nintendo would just commit to keep making them as long as they can sell them. This limited release bulls**t is just frustrating regular customers and enriching scalpers. Sometimes Nintendo seem incapable of learning from their mistakes.

#2 mattcom26 A year ago

Sorry Mike.

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#3 Captain-Gonru A year ago

I might sound like an old man in a rocking chair on the front porch here, but whatever happened to companies owning this sort of mistake? What is stopping Walmart from saying "Okay, we have to take down this preorder page because it went up prematurely. But, we will honor the orders of those who placed them, as this was our mistake, not theirs".
Frankly, this would put me off from giving them my money going forward, were I a person that shopped with them in the first place.

#4 KaiserWarrior A year ago

Or you could just built a Pi and avoid dealing with the whole stupid mess.

All Nintendo has to do is produce the thing in adequate quantities. Their refusal to do so results in lost sales from me and mine, who simply turn to more convenient and consumer-friendly options.