Is Gamestop Evil? The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

[xan_racketBOY_fan]

The Bad: Placed a hold request online and receive an email a couple hours later confirming the game is there waiting for me - that was yesterday ... morning. I drop by the GS after work just now and the guy behind the register comes back with a note on my printout, "Please switch to "unavailable", sorry accidentally hit yes". The asshole who wrote the note could have taken the time to call me (since my number is on the damn printout) instead of being a complete lazy fuck.

What was the game? Does Gamestop online now show unavailable?

Space Channel 5 for the PS2. I've been collecting the Dreamcast games that made an appearance on the PS2 the past couple of weeks. The games have been unavailable online but are "stocked" at these stores.

[SamuraiMegas]

It is a bit in between good and evil. My local game store is now getting another location in another city so that shows it isn't destroying ALL of those store types, the store is doing pretty great.

[CRTGAMER]

I drop by the GS after work just now and the guy behind the register comes back with a note on my printout, "Please switch to "unavailable", sorry accidentally hit yes". The asshole who wrote the note could have taken the time to call me (since my number is on the damn printout) instead of being a complete lazy fuck.

What was the game? Does Gamestop online now show unavailable?

Space Channel 5 for the PS2. I've been collecting the Dreamcast games that made an appearance on the PS2 the past couple of weeks. The games have been unavailable online but are "stocked" at these stores.

Strange, the site says it is still availabe. Even though its only 99 cents, they should take care of the customer and have it shipped in. I had GBA games shipped all the way across the states that cost less! Gamestop takes a hit on the shipping, but retains a loyal customer for future sales. Usually they will ship in other games that the receiving store could sell to justify the shipping cost.

Go back on a Wednesday morning and talk to the opener. There will be a store manager or senior person on the floor at both the calling and the sending stores. They usually come thru, especially if you have good raport. Space Channel is a two disc game, make sure they phone verify that both discs are in the yellow envelope, or if you are very lucky a CIB case.

[Gunstar Green]

Strange, the site says it is still availabe. Even though its only 99 cents, they should take care of the customer and have it shipped in. I had GBA games shipped all the way across the states that cost less! Gamestop takes a hit on the shipping, but retains a loyal customer for future sales. Usually they will ship in other games that the receiving store could sell to justify the shipping cost.

Go back on a Wednesday morning and talk to the opener. There will be a store manager or senior person on the floor at both the calling and the sending stores. They usually come thru, especially if you have good raport. Space Channel is a two disc game, make sure they phone verify that both discs are in the yellow envelope, or if you are very lucky a CIB case.

Indeed, I had a mix-up once where they had the wrong disk in the case so I had to take it back, but they didn't have the actual game I wanted in stock. They got it in from another store right away and the problem was solved.

[Mendoza]

To give a little fairness to the idea that Gamestop is not the only store full of slacked jawed idiots, let me tell you about my last (and potentially last ever) trip to Play and Trade.

Now i liked this store before it moved to its current location, but what happened on my second trip to its new location was beyond stupid.

Me, my friend, and his younger brother enter teh store. (Dodging the wacky inflatable flailing arms tube man in the parking lot)

On entry they ask us if we need any help finding something. We say "no".

They ask if we have been to the store before, We say "yes'

The two of the three clerks begin to giggle to themselves. Now perhaps they were talking about something prior to us arriving, whatever, but i get the odd feeling they are giggling at us.

So we look around for a while. Its not a bad store, but its small, kinda cramped on space. My friend's brother shows me a copy of Snk Arcade Classics for PSP. I notice the art work is different. It doesn't look like my PS2 copy. Then i notice it has no ESRB rating, but a Pegi rating instead. I tell him that i think its the pal version and im not totally sure if it will work on his system.

I go over to the still jabbering clerks and have to loudly say "excuse me' to get there attention. I explain the situation and at first they have no idea what "Pal" means, but then assure me it will work because they accepted it as a trade in so has to.

I continue looking and find a disk only copy of Sword of the Berserk. Its only 4.99 so i decide to get it. My friend's brother goes for a buy 3 for ten sale that nets him Soldier of Fortune, Tekken 4, and Starfox Adventures.

During the checkout the clerk on the register looks like a deer in head lights trying to put in the promotion. This takes quite a while to fix, and in the mean time the head clerk manages to spoil the ending of Starfox Adventure and question the choice of buying it.

My friend and I are both fuming at this point and I'm tempted to just leave the game and walk out. They try to sell us on thier version of the rewards card, we say no. They can barely process normal transactions, id hate to see what they do with that.

We get out and get home. Then we realize that something isnt right on our recipts. We didn't check them, something we normally do when not fighting back blinding rage.

We both got charged for their 'disc protection" service despite nto being asked for it or asking for it.

The 1+tax per game makes the buy 3 for ten deal useless as it makes the total nearly the same as buying those game at normal price.

My friend is too angry to call so i do, and am told that their computer sometimes adds that charge on its own. (Then your computer is a dick too)

So long story short. Even at the competition you can get a gamestop quality level of customer disservice.

They did have a disc only copy of Project Justice but they wanted way too much for it. 45 dollars is too much for me. Though honestly i might have been able to palm it and walk out for all they noticed.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

Call GameStops. Talk with... lets call him Guy.

Finally find one with Demons Souls.

Trek on over in rush hour to go buy Demons Souls. Takes about 45 minutes to get there (despite only being 10 miles away).

Guy says "Oh yeah" and goes back to find it. Takes about 15 minutes for him to come back.

Guy says "Oh we must not have it" then starts pre-order guff.

Tell Guy to piss off.

Make trek home.

About an hour and a half wasted.

Fuck you Guy!

[garrett123]

I havent been in gamestop for 2 years, other than asking how much a game was worth, they told me $1.00, but this location doesnt except it. I was also looking for a ds game 1 1/2 years ago, no one had it.

[PigInTheMud]

I've had good and bad experiences in all sorts of stores, but I have probably had the most problems in a Gamestop. However, now that I think about it many of the problems were probably created by myself and my friends. I would always go in looking for great old games like for the PS2 and gamecube, and I would come out angry because they threw away the cases or something like that. I would be a total dick and make snide remarks about how the gamestop did something stupid and threw away the good stuff. But this is their job. The workers are ordered to do these things to make room for more new games that will probably sell better. In the retro game sections a bunch of crap would just accumulate. Sure they would get some good stuff and throw out the box, but it was much more likely that they just had a bunch of crap sitting on the shelves. Nothing in these sections ever sell and the store is usually small enough as is so it makes sense to do what they did. Now I don't like it but I'm not the majority of Americans who buy games.

Actually yesterday I went to a gamestop saw red steel 2 for $5 and was happy to buy it but I saw it had no case. So I scrounged around all the used wii games and found one with a case, but it turned out to be $10. This was too much for me being the cheapskate I am so I talked to the clerk. He said that one of the new people had put red steel 1 stickers on everything and he apologized. On top of that he let me buy the boxed red steel 2 for the price of red steel 1! Awesome!

On the other hand assholes tend to work at gamestops. Assholes who don't know the difference between a good game and a game with good graphics.

[Hazerd]

This corporation needs to end.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/gamestop-c ... es-6393935

like retro games arent expensive enough, ill never get a copy of Earthbound for under $100 at this rate. Not that i even really want to play the damn game anymore.

[marlowe221]

Rant from a 30 year old DS/3DS lover:

So I was looking for a copy of Dragon Quest IX (DS). I drive to the nearest GS which is 30 minutes away from the small town in Mississippi that I live in. They don't have it on the wall. The clerk asks if I am looking for anything in particular and I tell him, knowing that the wall space for DS/3DS games is normally limited in the typical GS store. He taps on the keyboard for a moment and tells me that he is sorry but they don't have it.

I thank him and start to walk out the door. He calls after me to wait a moment, taps away at the keyboard some more and tells me that they have it at a GS in the next town over (another 30 minute drive, and NOT back toward home).

So I go to this store. It's not on the wall. The clerk checks his computer and tells me that he is sorry but they do not have it. BUT he helpfully offers that his computer tells him that another GS has the game in stock - THE ONE I JUST CAME FROM!!!!

It was an hour drive back to my small town and office..... No game.

Now, contrary to popular belief we do have the internet in Mississippi. I hopped on Amazon and bought it for half the price GS was going to charge me - even with the 1-day shipping I paid for.

I suppose I should have called first but I'm not sure how that would have helped in this situation - whatever they told me over the phone would have come from their wonderfully informative computer system!

Conclusion: Games will be ordered from Amazon from this day hence, avoiding unnecessary gasoline purchases and avoiding attacks of Adult-3DS-Owner-Embarrassment Syndrome.