Do you have a V-Stock in your area?

[KDub]

They also go by the name Bam (and something else)

One opened by me and unfortunately right by the game store I work at. But on the bright side we have had a lot of our customers come in complaining about them. Bad service, terrible trade prices, bad policies, lackluster stock etc.

Today though I got my first taste of it and just had to share this, especially with all the hate Gamestop gets and how similar this case was.

So a woman comes in with her son and I noticed immediately that she had a V-Stock bag. She comes up to the counter and asks if she could trade some games, I of course said she could and kind of reluctantly started checking out the games from the competing store. It was at this time she tells me what happened with these used games. She had bought them for her son yesterday (who looked maybe 5 or 6) and once he played them at home that night she realized they were way to mature for him. She brought them back to V-Stock in the morning and wanted to exchange them for different games, a simple thing in my mind. Even if it isn't our exact policy to let full exchanges happen for used products that aren't defective I would never mind letting a mom swap out something for her young son that would be more appropriate especially if it had only been a day, not like it hurts us and we may even gain a sale before they leave. V-Stock on the other hand refused and would only offer her trade on the (9.99 each) used games or exact exchange (for different copies of the same games). The trade they were going to give her, $1.50. So basically the mom was stuck she couldn't get different games and if she took the trade she would be losing $28.50. So that is why she brought them to us for trade value; now here is the real kicker! These disks were awful, scratches, rings, scrapes etc. No way could the kid do this in one night! Only one disk was maybe passable for us to sell with our 90 day guarantee. So basically I couldn't help her, I really wanted to but I couldn't take the games because we couldn't guarantee them to our customers without sending them to our warehouse for buffing. I felt pretty bad for her and suggested she either try to sell them outright or start asking for some managers of the managers at V-Stock until she gets some proper help.

Moral of the story: Don't shop at V-Stock!

[insanecow0]

I don't, and now I'm glad I don't.

[noiseredux]

I've never heard of V-Stock... it's a chain?

EDIT: oh, do you mean Vintage Stock? If so, there's none remotely near me:

[ZenErik]

never heard of it. Guessing they don't exist in MA/New England.

[KDub]

Yeah V-Stock stands for Vintage Stock apparently. Their sign here actually says V-Stock though...which we make fun of a lot for obvious reasons.

[CRTGAMER]

Competition is always good. Since they are a franchise and not just one store I would think VStock would have adopted Gamestops used game policy. The seven day try and refund if you don't like the game.

I'm curious what PlaynTrade policy is.

As for the scratched discs, should not have been sold but then again the games were turned loose to a six year old kid. Some kids do take care of their stuff, however some do not.

[BurningDoom]

Oh man, I sooooo freaking wish I had one of these in my area, or even within a reasonable driving distance. I would be in pure geek heaven. I've seen videos of these stores on Gamester81's YouTube channel, and it has everything I could ever want:

-Tons of old video games, systems, and accessories for tons different systems
-Comic Books
-Records & CDs
-Genre Movies
-Trading Cards
-Posters
-Collectibles

...if they only sold beer.

I would definitely become a regular if one opened in my area. I once wrote them an email asking if there was any chance of expanding the West Coast. Sounds like that's a definitive no for now.

[Xeogred]

I live about 10 minutes away from two stores and they sound like a different chain than what you're describing here. It's a shame the one by you sounds like it has terrible staff, since the ones around me are off the hook, and they do have a 7-10 day trade in policy or something along those lines.

It was probably stupid of them to take those bad discs in the first place, but they're just taking other peoples junk. They really are just pawn shops pretty much. So they're half at fault there, not completely I'd say.

I've been shopping at mine over the years for a long time now and it's pretty much how I've built up my SNES collection with rarities before Amazon/ebay really took off (still a lot more rewarding tracking things down in person too I'd say).

I did have one bad experience with one employee I only saw once though. I wasn't very clear on one of their buy X get X free deals one day, so I asked someone at the desk to clarify and he just basically quoted whatever the deal was in a really snarky, sarcastic way, so I almost just left the games I had brought up to ask about on the desk and left while telling him off. So wish I did that, lol, but I think I just put the games back on the shelves and left. Never saw him again.

Still, nothing that beats my Gamestop story with one employee having to open up my copy of Megaman ZX right in front of me to test it out for a few minutes!

[Michi]

Still, nothing that beats my Gamestop story with one employee having to open up my copy of Megaman ZX right in front of me to test it out for a few minutes!

Oh please stop bringing that up. It literally hurts me every time I read it