I was planning on preordering a game on Gamestop and was wandering how it worked and what was peoples experience with it? Did you get the game the same day as release? A week out? 2 weeks? Was the contents accurate? any box damage? When were you charged? Ect.

Ordered ps2 memory. Came later than promised (5 days instead of 3), but it was sent without any damage. Very satisfied

In japan, I don't see Gamestop.

I got the game on release date. It was packaged fine with no damage. I don't remember when I was charged.

Now I only preorder and buy new from Best Buy with the GCU 20% off.

Ordering online has only ever been a good experience via Amazon.

BestBuy charged fully at time of order and not time of ship.
Gamestop leaves package at door.

Amazon doesn't charge until ship (saves me potential refund issue if I decided to cancel order).
Amazon also sent package via USPS so it went to my secure box, not front door. (to be fair, I've never had something stolen from my front door)
If you're a Amazon Prime member, you also get 20% off physical copies bought within 2weeks of launch.

I really don't see why anyone buying physical (especially if they are Prime members) wouldn't just order via Amazon. You always get it on launch day too. At least I always have, though I'm sure there have been those delivered a day or so late due to any number of reasons.

The last time I did that was for Resident Evil 0 when it launched lol. But everything went smoothly for me.

The 20% only works on standard edition preorders now.  They stopped giving it two weeks after launch and it no longer applies to collectors editions.

I mostly agree. However, I trade in a lot of games at GameStop so I have a pretty big credit there. As a result, I often buy games there so I'm not spending any "new" money. In general I concur though. Amazon is the way to go. 

@OT: It's usually fine. They tend to use cheap packaging for single games (a flimsy cardboard sleeve) and the shipping time is on the slow end, but nothing too bad. Samus Returns is on the way now, so I hope it arrives intact!

Don't preorder games.

My experience has been good, I normally only get online stuff via Amazon though. But I wanted to secure a purchase on Xenoblade 2 special edition and the Pro controller. It's more of just a safety net for me. And then when it goes live on Amazon, hopefully I won't be sleeping and can get it there. And then I'll cancel from GameStop. Either way, it's been a pretty positive experience.