Never again will I purchase from Best Buy. Hopefully, there will always be a competitors, but for sure I will no longer purchase video games from this lousy company. When SOE announced the pre-orders for The Shadow Odyssey (TSO) we choose to go with Best Buy even though we had trouble with when RoK released also. The assumption was a large retailer that wants to be in the forefront of gaming would not screw up two times in a row. We were wrong. Best Buy insists that the release date for TSO is 11/19/2008, however the code goes live today (11/18/2008) and the software started selling at responsible retailers yesterday.
After about 30 minutes of trying last night I was able to get a hold of someone at our local Best Buy store, why they do not answer their phones is beyond me. The customer service representative was rude and unhelpful. She was not able to provide any information other than they were not allowed to sell TSO until the 19th (48hrs after other stores and 24hrs after the expansion goes live).
Last night my wife contacted customer service through their website and they again repeated the incorrect information about the game not being released until the 19th. My wife responded with links to SOE's website which shows today as the release date. Last we heard from them they are trying to confirm if the product was in the store or not. So, my wife called them and they said they won't sell them until the 19th. At no point have they ever said they don't have them in stock yet, just they won't sell them.
To add fuel to the fire our online order lists them as ready for pickup, but we can't pick up the software until tomorrow.
I realize EQ2 isn't WoW, thus stores don't really care. But, I expected better from a retailer like Best Buy. I expected them to try. All I can say at this point is I hope all consumer electronics and video games this season are purchased elsewhere, Best Buy is an unprofessional and unfriendly company to do business with.