I CAME DOWNSTAIRS THIS MORNING AND NEARLY PISSED MYSELF

If you play Pokemon X and Y and you are intending on getting a shiny Gengar from the Gengar event at GameStop, PLEASE READ THIS POST!

I went to GameStop today intending to get my free shiny Gengar (as all of the posters said, free. FREE as in NO PURCHASE NECESSARY) and the employee behind the counter told the customer in front of me that they could only get a card for a shiny Gengar if they pre-ordered Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire. That sounded like really shady bullshit to me, so I got out of line, eyed the poster, saw absolutely nothing about pre-ordering being necessary, said “bullshit,” and left. Later, I googled the event and found an entire reddit thread of people who had the same experience. On this thread, I discovered that GameStop said on its own Facebook page that there is no purchase necessary, and that evidently, some stores have been told to tell customers they had to pre-order. Surprise surprise, GameStop has shitty business practices. Someone on the thread eventually found a store with a manager that insisted that they were supposed to be free and that the other stores were scamming customers.

If this happens to you, DO NOT pay for anything. GameStop is a terrible business as we all know and they do not need your pre-order money. Show them the poster IN THEIR OWN STORE that says “no purchase necessary,” or if it doesn’t, pull up this picture on GameStop’s Facebook page in which it says no purchase necessary on the poster.

I reported this store to Nintendo’s customer service, and they were totally on my side. They said that there is absolutely no purchase or pre-order necessary, they took the store’s information, and took my information in case they need to verify anything more with me. She said that if I know of any other stores that are doing this to report them as well. They even took my serial number just in case they can get me a code directly. Nintendo customer service 10/10. GameStop 0/10.

Here’s Nintendo’s number in case the same thing happens to you: 1-800-255-3700. I don’t recommend calling GameStop, because you never know whether they’re going to be unbiased about it. Nintendo, on the other hand, wants people’s free Pokemon to be free.