Gamestop - Just let me buy my game(s) in peace.

[Damian Domino Davis]

Overall, I think you're just ticked with that store's staff, not GameStop.

On pushing used games -- has to do with company policy to promote them, their corporate culture thinks they make more money off it, and generates longer-term interest among the clients.

On copy switchout -- that story struck me as odd, really; I can't imagine they didn't tell you your total, and everyone who works in retail knows prices change and there isn't anything to be gained arguing or complaining about it, but actually changing the game out with another copy strikes me as bizzare.

On 12-digit pin laughter -- yeah, that was unprofessional.
On 12-digit pin -- yeah, that was rediculous.

 

[Hawkez]

Sorry, but OP, you sound like the kind of customer that makes people who work in retail want to hang themselves every day. If all you want is your purchase and then to leave, don't be so damned picky. Retail workers have to deal with hundreds of people more annoying and pickier than you, so it would serve everyone best if you try not to agitate them further.

Just don't get upset with them, they are busy hating themselves trying to scrape by while dealing with people like you for endless hours every day. It's not their fault their life sucks, its yours.

Yes, BUT, he handed them the ONE he wanted. They had to do MORE work to give him the wrong one. Not sure how it works at the GAME STOP in whatever state you live in. I now live in Australia and they HAVE to give it to you for the marked price. As per another of my posts, I have gotten a PS1 Super Street Fighter 2 turbo game used for $0.00 because that is what it was marked.

I am with the OP, I will buy used, but they need to be really nice ones. I will however buy a shitty one with disk only if it is insanely cheap. I am a collector, but some games I just want to play or will look for a better one later.

 

[Bat Vader]

Some employees are like that. I would just shop online instead.

 

[CrafterMan]

There is nothing wrong or "OCD" about wanting your $60 game to come factory sealed. What is wrong is the fact that you spent more than 5 seconds arguing this with one of the employees. If you can't handle a little confrontation with a Gamestop employee, I can't help but wonder how you will handle life. No offense intended. You either need to man up and tell the ***** that the reason you want it factory sealed doesn't fucking matter and slap him/her across the face with your 12 digit pin credit card, or lighten up and not worry about the condition your games are in. I'd go with the first one.

Uhm "manning up" isn't the answer here mate, just ask to speak to a manager, if that doesn't work, ask for their area manager.

I'm sorry that you were almost bullied for this scenario mate, people that get paid fuck all, care fuck all.

-Joe

 

[tenlong]

I admit to going to Gamestop and spending far more than I should within them a lot.

But out of all the stores I have been to, I have come to the conclusion that there are two that I am fed up with, and will never go back to.

The first of the two is actually located in the mall I work at - which made it a convenient place to go to after work hours, but... it seems every time I go there, I end up leaving irritated and-or upset over one thing or another; and it always has to do with the employees.

See, I do NOT go into the store with the desire to be made at all awkward/uncomfortable when all I want to do is go in, peruse and buy game(s).

Yet it seems that's the only thing that ever happens to me with this store.

Latest incident?


I wanted to get this game, and I wanted to get it new - now, as I'm sure everyone more or less knows, Gamestop tends to have on the shelf 'New' games that are out of the shrink wrap and all that jazz; and, while some of them have more copies on the shelf that are in the plastic, still, the shelved copies tend to be their only copy of 'New' games.

The game I wanted, I wanted to get it in the plastic, and so I asked if they had it - It was considered a popular game, so I figured chances were good that they still would. Luck had it that they did.

Yay, right?

Nope.

Instead of just being able to purchase the game and head on home, instead I am forced to endure near ten minutes of one of the employees drilling me and questioning me on why I 'have' to have the game new, and in the plastic.

Cue awkward feelings and a feeling of being just plain uncomfortable.

I tried to explain that, due to some OCD I have, that when I can, I have to get games new (and sealed) if at all possible; Or, if not new/sealed, at least as like new/mint as possible... there's nothing wrong with that, is there? It wasn't hurting him, or anyone...

Yet he had to continue getting on my case about it, making me feel like I'm some idiot because of what I felt more comfortable with, claiming that it's stupid because one could buy the same game used and save money as well as 'get more' out of it.

Blah, blah, blah.

Plus, when the person ringing up my order FINALLY ran it through and all, she made fun of the fact that my PIN number is so long (twelve digits).


Scenario Two:

Happened a while ago, but I'm curious to hear if anyone else has had this happen to them?

Background: I tend to be rather anal/picky/obsessive when it comes to buying games used. If I get it used, the case has to be in excellent/mint condition with original artwork and HAS to come with original manual... Disc also, preferably, is as near mint as possible, meaning little to no scratches.

I know, what's the point in buying used if I'm going to be such a freak about it, right?

Still.

Anyways.

So at this one Gamestop, I picked up a few games including Grand Theft Auto III (It was $4.99 - keep that in mind, it IS relevant.)

I went to purchase them, and wasn't paying too much attention when the person ringing me up went to get the discs and all, paid and headed out to the car.

Once in the car I did my usual check discs routine, when I noticed something odd... The GTA3 game... was not the one I originally picked up.

I know this, because I made sure to get the best, newest looking GTA3 case/manual/poster that I could find, and the one I now had was disgusting (to me) and nothing at all what I would of agreed to go ahead and get.

Plus, I noticed, that the price tag on this GTA3 sported a price of "$6.99".

...
Check my receipt, and yup, I got charged $6.99 for GTA3, even though the case I picked up (and all others in the displays) stated that it was $4.99.

Not cool.

Of course, when I went back into the store to question this, all the employees would tell me is this: Oh, well, the game was $4.99 at one point, but that was the old price and the new price is $6.99; we just haven't gone through and changed the prices of the games on display yet.

...
...
...
The whole switching the cases on me and charging me more than what I thought something was? Not right at all, and made worse to the fact that they NEVER BOTHERED TELLING ME.

I don't know about what everyone else thinks, and I hate to sound like some entitled ***** here, but it was NOT right of them to pull that crap. What they SHOULD of done is, at least, TELL me about the price change and ASK me if I still wanted to purchase the item.

Even better, they should of honoured the pricing it stated on the display - It isn't the customer's fault if THEY didn't update matters.


Blah, blah, blah.
I wish I wasn't so... weak, when it comes to confrontations and stuff.


Uh, all ranting and rambling aside, I guess the main point/question of this is:

Has anyone else had bad experiences with Gamestop or buying games in general?

i never had to deal with gamespot. i suggest you order online. plus if going i amto pay 60 bucks for a game i want it new .

 

[s-l-u-g]

"Yet he had to continue getting on my case about it, making me feel like I'm some idiot because of what I felt more comfortable with, claiming that it's stupid because one could buy the same game used and save money as well as 'get more' out of it.

Blah, blah, blah.

Plus, when the person ringing up my order FINALLY ran it through and all, she made fun of the fact that my PIN number is so long (twelve digits)."


Why did they sprout breasts in front of you?

 

[The_Deleted]

It's perfectly simple:
If they start giving it the big one. Walk away.
If you haven't got the game you were expecting, and I'm a sod for good condition and a bastard for manuals, fucking say so. They'll keep pulling this shit 'cus you let them.
Make a scene in the store when it's busy if they try to fuck you off. They hate that.

 

[AlyxX]

I haven't had many bad experiences with the local GameStop shop yet. However, I came in one day and noticed they had a used version of Command & Conquer for PS1. To my grief, however, I opened the case (which had no manual or cover art) and discovered, there was only 1 disc. Yes, there was only 1 disc of a 2 disc game. I pointed this out to one of the employees and he took it out back or something.

But anyway, so far I love going to GameStop and I always look for a cheap used game in fairly good condition. Managed to pick up an excellent version of Wipeout 3 Special Edition even with a near mint cover, manual and CD.

 

[MercurySteam]

GameStop is in America right? Well over here in Aussie whether you shop at Gametraders, JB HiFi or EB Games, they treat you like you actually are. A person with an IQ. Sure you sound like my friend who refuses to play TF2 beacause he thinks he's gonna get a virus, but that kinds of shit from people who're selling to you unacceptable.

 

[RRilef]

Have you considered writing the gamestop headquarters, let them know of the problems you have been having, they should be able to do something to at least start to rectify the situation. They'll probably even give you a gamestop gift card, which I can tell is probably the number 1 thing you want right now.

 

[AlyxX]

We have GameStop in Norway too.

 

[Christemo]

find another place to buy games. gamestop has worse customer service than blizzard and they are only as rich as they are because small girls and their moms comes there to buy wii games.

i would say that i trust amazon.com even less. i ordered the original god of war game, i start up the ps2, and then what happened? "disc read error". what the fuck. even worse, that "disc read error has spread to alot of my other games. either my ps2 is getting lupus and attacking itself from the inside, or its just broken (i have used it for 6½ year, so it might try to find a cheap 1 if i can find a proper god of war game. fuck you amazon, ill never buy anything from them again.

 

[pirateninj4]

Ah yes, the girls that work in game shops being dickheads conundrum. Happened to me a few times when I didn't hit on them because they're a girl. In a game shop. Next time someone makes fun of your shit, just tell them to stfu and get to makin' your sale happen.

 

[AlyxX]

I don't think you should judge the chain based on one or two shops. GameStop in my town is at least helpful and nice.

 

[vampirekid.13]

i never had an issue with game stop at all, i go in i pick my game i buy it, virtually no interaction with employees. you should talk to the manager about the people working at your gamestop they sound horrible to deal with.


altho i must say the incident with the pin, where you were made fun of for having a 12 digit pin, well, i think that that one is just you over reacting, so she was poking a little fun at it, it is infact funny, thats a very long pin number O_O.

the rest you are right and thats BS that they acted the way they did.

 

[muffincakes]

I wanted to get this game, and I wanted to get it new - now, as I'm sure everyone more or less knows, Gamestop tends to have on the shelf 'New' games that are out of the shrink wrap and all that jazz; and, while some of them have more copies on the shelf that are in the plastic, still, the shelved copies tend to be their only copy of 'New' games.

The game I wanted, I wanted to get it in the plastic, and so I asked if they had it - It was considered a popular game, so I figured chances were good that they still would. Luck had it that they did.

Yay, right?

Nope.

Instead of just being able to purchase the game and head on home, instead I am forced to endure near ten minutes of one of the employees drilling me and questioning me on why I 'have' to have the game new, and in the plastic.

I won't buy out of the plastic games for one simple reason: Gamestop employees are allowed to play the games which is why they are "new" but out of the plastic. I've gotten several games before(most recently Mass Effect) that were out of the plastic and half the time they are missing vital components. The first time it happened I was missing one of the game discs. The last time it happened, I was missing the CD key. Personally, I refuse to shop at Gamestop any longer because of that and their refusal to have good customer service.

 

[zahr]

I remember I was at an EB games one time (Canadian version of gamestop) buying SWBF2... the asshole there asked if I wanted new or used; I said new, because I hate used copies. Then he started bitching and asking why anyone would want to pay more money. (I hadn't realized, at the time, that the store actually makes more money by reselling than by selling new copies, so I didn't understand why he was so insistent that I buy a used copy.) I eventually managed to purchase it (a new copy), but never returned to that particular outlet.

However, now that I actually realized that used copies don't give any money to the developer, these days whenever an EB games employee tries to sell something used, I end up launching into a rant of my own.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Hate to tell you but Gamestop is a FORCED sales environment. What that means is employees are rated by their performance. For Gamestop the criteria would be based on pre-orders, and used games in ratio to new games sold. By forcing customers to buy used games they are making the company the money the company needs to stay in business. A new game sales still gets them money but it is 5 bucks to every new game sales versus a 100% gain with a used game.

What makes these stores like Gamestop an oddity is that there is no commission or incentive to sell or be the best. Not even an regional award to put onto a resume for future use. A game store would be a more likely candidate to be in a passive sales environment letting the consumer figure out what products to get and buy them, but once again that business model of gamestop's forces employees to sell used over new.

Some other examples where you would find forced sales and let me tell you in the states the forced sales environment is growing and more dominant than ever. Car lots, Insurance, Video game stores, Cell phone stores, Cable and internet providers all fit under that forced sales environment. Getting people to buy something they might not need or pay more monthly to get a service they don't need and this is the standard business practice of forced sales business.

For example ATT and other cell phone stores recently increased their quota for employees when selling phones. No longer is a normal cell phone and texting package will meet that new quota. Phones like the iphone and Blackberry are now the standard and MUST be sold for ATT employees to stay in the green and that means having the unlimited data and unlimited texting making a cell phone bill be at least 100 bucks a month per consumer with a single line(family lines excluded).

Expecting good service in a forced sales environment that gives no drive or incentive or a demoralized environment for employees will not create a good work environment.

In other words: don't hate the poor employees, hate the idiots who thought that crap up.

Anyway, all I have to tell you guys: be haaaappy you guys háve game stores. All we have here is a Music Store (which barely has any games) and a local toy store. Yay for the internet though, but still, I prefer stores.