Quote Originally Posted by Cherios
Gaming stores occassionally do this so people pre-order at high prices then forget to check how much the device actually is when they come pick it up. I guess it's so if people don't complain then they don't need to know anything. All I'm going to say is if you are going to pre-order...hold on to your receipt and not rely on a gaming store's computer. Then you will remember exactly how much you paid for it and can haggle your money back if the price did indeed drop on the launch date. That's retail for ya...
Eh, I worked at EB awhile back, and before the launch of the PS2, we took pre-orders based around an anticipated launch price of $400, the difference of which was re-fundable on the chance the system came out cheaper, which it indeed did. When the lower price was made official, customers were able to get the difference back in cash, or transfer it to something else. Bottom line; if a customer pays more then the final retail amount for any given item based on a projected retail price, they get the difference back. It's as simple as that.

Being that your average videogame store keeps records of every pre-order transaction made, and give customers records for thier own reference, there is absolutely no way the company could screw anybody even if they wanted to. Now, unless the retailers you're speaking of use an archaic system to track pre-orders, and the customers are too dense to keep track of the money they put down on them, there's no way you're scenario is going to happen. Noone need worry about this...