275: Confessions of a GameStop Employee - Part Three

[Electrogecko]

So I guess the smart thing to do would've been to buy it used, then if the kids like it, return it, then come back the next day and buy it new.

 

[Towels]

Typical Retail tedium.

Honestly, I can understand someone wanting a full refund on a new game they just bought an hour ago, regardless of the fact they tore off the shrinkwrap that may not even be factory. Do you think they would have even had time to play it in that time?

But at the same time, the grunts at the counter don't always have the authority to break company policy for C/S reasons.

 

[LitleWaffle]

Costumer is always king right? No fuck you. This woman had a specific warning that she couldn't get a refund in a new game. If they cannot be reasonable, you stop being as well and kick them out of the store. It cost me a job once because I followed protocol and I don't regret it at all. People need to read and listen on the things that they are going to buy.

Rant over.

*High Fives*

More on Topic: *checks remaining faith in humanity*
Can I have it in the negative percentage?

 

[The Long Road]

This kind of behavior isn't even limited to retail. Any job that has you dealing with strangers is going to have its moments. I have to work parking lots at my college on football Saturdays to make sure people don't park in reserved lots without a pass, and you wouldn't believe how some people react when I tell them that they need a pass to park in the lot clearly marked "RESERVED. SPECIAL EVENT PASS NEEDED." I'm sorely tempted to let one of them park just so I can make them hump all the way across campus after their car gets towed.

It doesn't even get better in the military. A friend of mine is an MP at Fort Polk in Louisiana. One of the powers of the base commander is to totally lock down the base, meaning the President could be at the gate and the MPs have to keep him from entering until the commander lifts the lockdown. Yet I get stories of mid-level officers literally trying to drive right past guards armed with assault rifles. It rarely ends well. Unfortunately, most civilian employees don't carry automatic weapons, so they don't get that kind of catharsis.

 

[CRoone]

I find it somewhat amusing that, in America, the customer is not allowed to barter or haggle for prices in stores, and yet employees are expected to give them whatever they want in order to keep them happy, even if doing so is against the written rules that the employee is supposedly expected to follow. It just goes to show that when the employee handbook fails, nothing teaches like experience, assuming it doesn't get one fired for doing only what one was told to do in the first place.

thats nothing my old store manager used to, to appease the customer give them 20 dollar gift cards if they got mad at our rules.

Aye...that brings back memories. That was actually standard policy at the last place I worked. I never asked much about it at the time, but I remember having a hard time understanding how it fit into the other store rules I'd been taught about. That was a couple of years ago, though, so I've learned a bit since then.

 

[soapyshooter]

Worked as a waiter before, not the same but you have to put up with same sort of bitchiness. You have no idea how much control it takes to not punch someone in the face.

 

[matrix3509]

Seriously, all you have to do to get your way in Gamestop is to threaten to call the district manager. Bam, problem solved.

 

[mrx19869]

sorry this guy this an idiot, keeping customers happy overrides store and company policy almost all the time. Especially in a place where you can shrink wrap a product to make it like new. Or sell it at used price of 55$ cause ive seen brand new games at a used price of that..

But basically my point is... the customer is always right especially in retail. and game-stop employees are usually retarded. (my prof is in the article)

ehemm
no they are not. please tell me have you ever worked in retail?
and what prof of the employees sub average intelligence?

yes, I have worked in retail. I was employed at a popular teen and young adult clothing shop, as well as a major electronic corp. My experience at retail is about 5 years worth. This does not include my jobs in restaurants which is also customer based and the same principal of keeping a customer happy overrides corporate policy.

My prof, that some employees at gamestop are retarded comes from overhearing a employee tell a mom that a PS3 back in 2007ish told her that she did not need to buy an HDMI cable, and that it came with the box. When I told her that the employee was wrong he got angry at me he told me that I didnt know what I was talking about.

A 2nd incident happened when I went to buy a used copy of Dragon Age Origins. I asked to see the copy of the disc, and to my amazement the disc had two huge and deep scratches in the disc. I told him I didn't want that one and to check to see if he had another. He told me that this game had been tested and that it loads. I told him that it may as well as load up but can you tell me that I will be able to play through the entire game without it crapping out one me. He shrugged his shoulders and said iduno but what does it matter I was buying a used game anyway. Needless to say I did not buy the game, and walked out of the store.

These two occurrences happened at separate stores in different parts of the state of Florida.

I would also like to add that a couple of times a gamestop employee has criticized me on the game that I was purchasing and said "ohh thats a stupid game". After a lengthly discussion it was revealed that he just couldn't get a certain level..

So there is my prof, maybe not all gamestop employees are restarted but my experience tell me that they are. Maybe you are a good one, but alas I have not meet you.

 

[EvilChameleon]

I could join the posting of idiot customer stories, but I think I'll save some times and just post a link to the motherlode of dumb customer stories.

Just feel some solace in knowing so many of us also know the customer is:

www.notalwaysright.com

You sir, have given me a whole month of reading material. Bravo.

On this series, I can't wait for part 4. This is too hilarious.

 

[Jaded Scribe]

These kinds of stories are not just limited to retail. I worked a lot at Pizza Hut, and people are just as bad there.

Those of us who have served in the trenches of jobs dealing with the general public, I give you the best website ever:

http://www.notalwaysright.com

I showed it to a friend who (having not worked with the general public) was certain these were mostly fake. He was astounded when I said they were, by and large, true stories.

 

[jthm]

I have too many stories like this. Gamestop was a great job because I had great coworkers. Without them, that job would've sucked.

 

[CheckD3]

This almost exactly happened to me before. I answered the phone at my work place, Blockbuster, and it was 15 minutes after closing, we'll sometimes answer the phones to be nice.

Which is why we stopped being nice where I work. We also don't answer before we open, which is funny because our weekend hours are shorter. When the clock hits our weekday opening time, the phone starts ringing. One day the guy stayed on the full half hour until our weekend opening time. WTF?

As it is, our manager takes most calls that come in just before closing because if we get stuck on the phone he's got to wait for us to finish before leaving, so he decided that instead of both of us being stuck and him just waiting, he might as well just be the one to stay. None of us care about losing the overtime.

I haven't answered the phones afterward unless I start with Hello or we're closed...but that's only if people don't stop calling over and over...but since then I've stopped being so nice over the phone w/ closing answers

 

[Mechsoap]

i must say it was the mom's own fault, she overreacted and blamed others instead of her self.

some people never learn to listen
ps: she ''doesn't buy used games for her kids''?! wtf is wrong with people, its not like someone put hardcore porn on the disc after it was used

first thats the funniest damn thing i read all day and second
http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/sports/madden07/news.html?sid=6163689
it can happen i suppose, but this game was new.

Now that made my post seem ironic.
And the on disc thing? funniest thing i have readt today XD

 

[VonBrewskie]

I work as a mid-level manager for a large corporation that ships packages. I understand your last comment about getting thrown under the bus only too well. In our world, that is, the world that I work in and spend the majority of my time, the customer is not only always right, the customer is beyond any kind of reproach. God help the manager at my level that draws flak from a customer. In our world we at least have the benefit of not having to necessarily deal with customers face-to-face very often. What you are describing in this article is a "symptom" of the corporate world. Gamestop must have a similar managerial culture to mine. Most big companies subscribe to similar kinds of "plausible deniability" in situations like the one you were describing with "soccer mom". In other words, to be successful in most corporate positions you have to become comfortable with the fact that you WILL be thrown under the bus. To be successful in a lot of corporate positions how smart you are and how hard you work takes a back seat to whether or not you can "play ball" the way the company wants you to. Everyone, go to college. Get educated some way. If not college, then some other form of higher education. If not school, learn a good trade or go to art school or something. The corporate world really, truly, sucks major balls.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

sorry this guy this an idiot, keeping customers happy overrides store and company policy almost all the time. Especially in a place where you can shrink wrap a product to make it like new. Or sell it at used price of 55$ cause ive seen brand new games at a used price of that..

But basically my point is... the customer is always right especially in retail. and game-stop employees are usually retarded. (my prof is in the article)

ehemm
no they are not. please tell me have you ever worked in retail?
and what prof of the employees sub average intelligence?

yes, I have worked in retail. I was employed at a popular teen and young adult clothing shop, as well as a major electronic corp. My experience at retail is about 5 years worth. This does not include my jobs in restaurants which is also customer based and the same principal of keeping a customer happy overrides corporate policy.



I would also like to add that a couple of times a gamestop employee has criticized me on the game that I was purchasing and said "ohh thats a stupid game". After a lengthly discussion it was revealed that he just couldn't get a certain level..

So there is my prof, maybe not all gamestop employees are restarted but my experience tell me that they are. Maybe you are a good one, but alas I have not meet you.

I'd state that there's a whole teeming mass of fuckwits on both sides of the counter, but the problem I have stems from too many customers treating staff like they're not even human , not worth treating with even the basic level of respect anyone should get, and the overinflated sense of worth they have because they're spending money in the same building I work in.

Let me tell everyone, 'Do you understand that I pay your wages, young man?' does not make us want to help you more, because unless you drop a couple of hundred bucks for my week into my hand there and then...you just DON'T.' Sure we have tight margins, but some stores are awakening to the concept that a good member of staff makes more money for the company than a shitty customer who only comes into whine and return stuff.

Of course, try to retain the good customers, even if they're low spenders as they'll increase staff morale, and increased staff morale means they'll be better sales people and customers will be happier in your store, but there's a dozen other stores that the crappy ones can go to, returning worthless crap and sucking the souls out of your staff.

 

[Jesus Phish]

This has happened to me too in a different store and it really is the most annoying thing in the bloody world.

You have a nut job customer who wants a refund, despite not being eligable for one. You have your boss and company telling you you're never to give a refund out unjustily because if you do, you'll be on a warning and on the road to being fired.

Then they go over your head and under the store manager to someone whose too spineless to tell this person they're in the wrong. And then they (the customers) stand there looking at you all smug that they got their way by being loud and dramatic.

God I hated retail..

 

[Optimystic]

So I can get full credit for turning in a "used" game and all I need to do is throw a tantrum..gotcha. I'll remember that next time I want to trade up.

Throwing tantrums that get noticed by the higher-ups is a standard strategy for retail, sadly. Even more sadly, assholes are the ones that use this power the most, and then only against the undeserving grunts.

 

[zana bonanza]

I work in retail too, and I get this all the time. I call it the Ass-Kissing Policy. It's gotten to the point where I usually don't even try to enforce the actual policies anymore when a customers complains; I'd just page a manager and let them deal with it, because the customer's going to win anyway.

 

[Schizzy]

Technically, all the Soccer Mom had to do was take the used game and test it on her kids.

If the kids liked it, should could return it, THEN she could buy a new version of it.

If not, just return it and try something else.