Walmart's SNES Classic Pre-Orders are a Mess... Again

For a second time, pre-orders for the SNES Classic went up at Walmart before promptly shutting down after about 15 minutes. Once again the race for an SNES Classic continues to be a bloodbath, but Walmart seems intent on making the process even more complicated on their end.

Not only did the orders fall through, even during the checkout process, but it seems that those who did land a pre-order aren't receiving confirmation emails for their SNES Classic orders. Conflicting reports are incoming saying that emails are delayed by an hour, orders are cancelled, or that pre-orders went up by mistake. Kind of like a repeate of Walmart's last SNES SNAFU.

Customers began reporting that they managed to get SNES Classic orders through Walmart, but also raised concerns that they weren't receiving confirmation emails for their successful order. This stoked fears that Walmart's pre-orders weren't being processed properly.

One person on Twitter, Jonathan Lack, posted a screengrab of his conversation with an online Walmart representative after he failed to receive a confirmation email from Walmart after placing an SNES Classic pre-order through the retailer. The Walmart representative seemed to confirm that his order didn't go through and that the SNES Classic wasn't even supposed to be up for pre-order before its September 29 release date.

However, users on NeoGAF who also faced a similar problem with confirmation emails seem to be saying that emails are arriving about an hour after the original orders were placed. Lack and other customers are also saying that even without confirmation emails, the order appears in their customer purchase history. So basically, nobody is really sure what's happening.

If you recall, this isn't the first time Walmart's SNES Classic pre-orders were bungled. The retailer first put up digital pre-orders in July. However, after several days where some customers were reporting that their orders were cancelled over payment problems, Walmart announced that the retailer would cancel all pre-orders.

While Walmart's handling of the situation isn't blameless for the SNES Classic nightmare we're all sharing, this episode continues to reveal the huge faults in how the SNES Classic orders are being handled by all parties involved. It really shouldn't be this hard.