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

[SNKnicotine]

I've Never really had a problem with GS even thou they make a living off of ripping people off (moving right along). I stopped in at my local GS and asked for The ONLY New copy of the DATA EAST COLLECTION on the wii (for my personal NIB collection), he says "i love that game" and pulls out a ratty generic black dvd case with a the Data East insert in it, he pulls the game out of the drawer puts in the case with the manuel and seals it , with a sticker. when a game says "NEW" i expect it to be in its factory sealed case, not some drawer, he also stuck it in there so fast i didnt get to inspect the game for scratches or damage, and was still charged for a "NEW" copy.

P.S. i hardly think even if i keep it "sealed" it'll be considered new

[BurningDoom]

I've Never really had a problem with GS even thou they make a living off of ripping people off (moving right along). I stopped in at my local GS and asked for The ONLY New copy of the DATA EAST COLLECTION on the wii (for my personal NIB collection), he says "i love that game" and pulls out a ratty generic black dvd case with a the Data East insert in it, he pulls the game out of the drawer puts in the case with the manuel and seals it , with a sticker. when a game says "NEW" i expect it to be in its factory sealed case, not some drawer, he also stuck it in there so fast i didnt get to inspect the game for scratches or damage, and was still charged for a "NEW" copy.

P.S. i hardly think even if i keep it "sealed" it'll be considered new

Then you ask for a new copy, and if they refuse, you tell them you'll be buying this at Best Buy or Wal-Mart or something instead then. Either they'll give you a new copy because they don't want to lose the sale, or if they don't care enough then screw em and go buy it at those stores.

[CRTGAMER]

The Good
Normally I hate the sales pitch that causes a backup at the cashier line. This time it was worth listening to, save some money on a followup repurchase.

Gamerstop Employee: "Right now we have up to 30% off on DS and Wii games. Save your sales receipt, you can refund and repurchase the Wii used games at another Gamestop if you find more titles."

I did just that and bought six games at three different Gamestops on three different days. Since I timed the Gamestop visits with my regular commute, saved some moola. This is soooo much better then the buy two get the cheapest game free, ALL the Wii and DS used games purchased are discounted!

Two Wii / DS Games 10% off all

Four Wii / DS Games 20% off all

Six Wii / DS Games 30% off all

[01toubib]

Gotta Rant, wouldn't be a proper Gamestop thread without one.

Went to Gamestop today, as always, ask the lady at the store if she has any Backwards compatible PS3's. (A friend of mine disparately wants one for some reason )

Today for once they had one. A CECHB 20gb. I call up my friend and he drives right over to come buy it.

From then on, things just take a turn for a poor experience. First things first, the packaging they used on this PS3's. I'm okay with no original box, but they took the generic gamestop box for a PS3 SLIM! and put this PS3 fat in it even though it didn't fit so the box extruded (quite noticeably) To attempt to cover it up, there was tape all around the box, and when I mean all around, I mean this box looked like Zebra from all the black tape on this white box.

We ask if we can see the system. They politely refused stating it's all in good working condition and no need to open it to check. (More like they didn't want to remove all that tape ) I didn't care that much so I just told my friend to ring it up.

Of Course I have to deal with the usual

Gamestop: "Do you want the 1 year warranty for $19.99 or the 2 year warranty for $29.99?"
Friend: "No thanks"
Gamestop: "But it can save you from the YLOD that's very common on these systems"
Friend: "thanks for the tip but I'm all set"
Gamestop:"Do you have a power-up card with us?"
Friend: "Nope"
Gamestop: "Would you like to join its only $xx and you get $xx off games... blah blah blah"
Friend: "Nah I'm good"
... Pretty much 5 extra minutes of trying to pull some more pennies of my buddy. Of course it didn't work so we went on our way.

We get home, excited to try out this system. (I've owned many unique PS3's, but never had a backwards compatible one, so I was pretty pumped to see this thing in action.)

Open it up... Uh oh... On the outside, it's trashed. Whoever previously owned the system must of used it as a kitchen table. It was covered in grease stains and had several deep gashes. It also looked like it had been opened up as there were was missing screws and covers on the system itself. I turn it over and realize it had also been dropped at some point as the bottom side was chipped off.

So me and my friend are like f*** it, lets see how it works. Boot it up. Starts right up no problem... except no picture on the screen. Hmmm. Now any of us who have a PS3 know sometimes it puts out video through HDMI instead of the composite cables given, so we try HDMI with no luck. I go home and grab my composite cable. Bam it works fine. I look at the ones that came with the gamestop PS3, and it's a pair of generic cables and it had been pulled/ well worn on the connecting end and were basically ruined.

... at this point we're still like f*** it, let's play. I put in a PS2 game as that's the first thing I wanted to see working. I put in the lamest game he owned "Corvette." Started playing and began laughing at how poorly made a game this was... Suddenly BAM my car downshifted. I'm like "wtf" I didn't tell the car to downshift. Up shift again. A second later, bam, downshift... (This is with the Gamestop supplied PS3 controller.) So I'm like something isn't right. So I put in another game, Robotech Battle Cry. Same thing... My ship is doing barrel rolls for no reason . Then I realize, the controller has the R2 button stuck. But not like visually stuck, it just randomly hits R2 continuously. Not amused. I decide to take a thorough look over this controller. Man this thing must of been used by the Cheezey Poof monster, this thing was COVERED in orange stuff it took me like 15 minutes to clean it off with rubbing alcohol. Also the right Joystick was missing the rubber on the exterior and the left joystick was spinning freely, sort of like a dead N64 joystick.

I look at my buddy, and he's already thinking what I'm thinking. Return this POS ASAP. If they gave us a non working generic composite cable, a non working controller, and a poorly maintained PS3. I couldn't imagine what else would of happened with this system in the long run.


In summary, request to visually check a used system out before purchasing. If not... it's probably shady.

/rant

[Nintendork666]

I think it's GS policy to allow the customer to see a used console before buying it. I've done it a few times, and have even been told, "Yeah, I wouldn't buy it either." It's an understandable request when dealing with used hardware, and I'd be shocked if I were declined the privilege. Those employees suck.

Funco Land used to have a kiosk for every older system they offered software for, just so you could test out any used game before buying it. I believe they'd even test out a used console for you on a tv in the store before buying it.

[AppleQueso]

Funco Land used to have a kiosk for every older system they offered software for, just so you could test out any used game before buying it. I believe they'd even test out a used console for you on a tv in the store before buying it.

Play N Trade does that. Pretty spiffy.

[BoringSupreez]

Funco Land used to have a kiosk for every older system they offered software for, just so you could test out any used game before buying it. I believe they'd even test out a used console for you on a tv in the store before buying it.

Play N Trade does that. Pretty spiffy.

So does Slackers. It's sadly ironic that Slackers lets you do that, when they test all their stuff for real, while Gamestop doesn't, and they're the ones you've gotta worry about broken systems from.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Yeah it's always a good idea to examine used consoles and even used discs.

I learned that lesson the hard way - I once purchased a non-working GameCube from GameStop. Thankfully this was during the period when they had GameCubes stacked 5 feet high on the sales floor, so I was able to exchange it for another one.

[KDub]

So does Slackers. It's sadly ironic that Slackers lets you do that, when they test all their stuff for real, while Gamestop doesn't, and they're the ones you've gotta worry about broken systems from.

We test all our systems prior to taking them in for trade, we don't take in anything defective (unless it is something I can fix easily in our warehouse). If it works we clean it completely before bagging it up. All employees should be willing to plug in a system and show you that it works, and you'll have 90 days defective warranty after that. If a system gets brought back for any reason, it gets tested and cleaned again.

I can't account for other stores but at mine we avoid taking in anything that looks real beat up even if it is working. We also won't take it 360's made before 2008 and we won't take in anything previously opened, especially systems that are popular to mod. That mostly means Xbox, 360, PS2 and PS3.

[brunoafh]

From what I've seen GameStop tests the systems on the spot. Would be stupid not to. I wish they had the same policy for games, as I've bought several used games that did not work. Yeah, you can just return them if you keep the receipt, but it's still irritating and an inconvenience that could be eliminated given proper regulations.