10th of April! Many gamers had noted this day down, because today we could finally place pre-orders on Guild Wars 2!
My brother and I, being long-time fans of the original game (ever since Factions came out, to be exact. So we're "2nd-hour fans") and our target was very clear: We had to have that Collector's Edition.
So this morning I woke up at 9AM and prepared to travel to Mechelen, the closest city to us with a Game Mania (the store with the distribution deal here in Belgium).
However, when I got there the clerk simply informed me that the Collector's Edition pre-order was no longer available, all available units had been reserved for people who ordered them.
For all clarity: today was the first day people could place orders on this game, and I got at the store only half an hour after opening time and the place was deserted, indicating there hadn't been a mass of people waiting outside (Belgium isn't very big on this kind of events). Turns out that Game Mania simply took up reservations (calling it like this ensured they didn't violate their contract with ArenaNet, the game's developer) about a year ago (long before the collector's edition was actually announced), which were sold out after only half an hour. So there I am.
How does that feel? In all openness, I feel screwed over, cheated upon, backstabbed, call it whatever you want. This is an outrageous sales trick that at least heavily skirts the boundaries of the contract they had.
Game Mania sold things to people without even knowing whether they'd even have that in the end, and blatantly covers up this whole operation now that they actually did get a Collector's Edition ensuring that nobody who decided to wait until the official unveiling of this is able to get what they want and deserve.
A pre-order or pre-purchase is in essence a reservation, so now we had to reserve a reservation? What will we have to do for, say, Guild Wars 3? Reserve our right to reserve a pre-order/pre-purchase/reservation?
Handling your customers like this is simply criminal. Game Mania has simply become a Maffia organisation to me. They get a deal, exploit it, and leave their customers with a bitter aftertaste while also leaving them dependant.

There is a very slight chance there'll be a restock of Collector's Editions tomorrow, and being a dedicated fan I have no choice but to go again (altough this time, my brother is going) and hope luck doesn't desert us.
This cannot possibly be the way ArenaNet wishes its fans to be treated. If any employee reads this, please take note and reflect.
Sincerely,
A fan.