"Once upon a time, there was a small gaming retailer that can be easily found at your local mall." "Nowadays, this retailer is well known for shady business tactics and screwing over consumers on a daily basis."
read more | digg story
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
89 comments:
I work at Gamestop and it is absolutely horrible! Please understand, however, that the only reason we are so aggressive with selling useless shit (magazine subscriptions, preorders, and the ever worthless discount card) is that we are THREATENED to do so or lose our jobs. I'm currently at a point in my life right now where I need to focus almost entirely on my own independent filmmaking career, so Gamestop is just a day job for me.
I have worked for many corporations and I can safely say that none of them are as dishonest as Gamestop. The people who run the company are a complete joke and our district / regional managers are about as useless to us as the discount card.
The point I'm trying to make here is:
1) Yes, Gamestop does indeed suck.
and
2) Go ahead and hate those of us who do the grunt work, but just remember that most of us HATE our jobs with a passion.
From,
An anonymous "Game Associate".
WOW, I Have so much in common with "Game Associate"
I agree wholeheartedly as a fellow game associate, (as the corporation likes to call their lowest level employees,) the truth is that GameStop basically tries to brainwash its employees into believing that "edgecard" is actually worth it, and to many employees it works because these are people who live their lives based on gaming and buying games.
However the card is worthless, taking only the sales tax away from the game and at the same time sends the GameStop owned rag, Game-Informer to the customer. A magazine based around selling the GameStop brand. There are rarely any bad reviews of games in the magazine, (recent example; Crackdown received an 8.5.)
Associates are pressed to mention the fact that games can be traded and bought at GameStop. Employees must mention this in their greeting of customers who walk into the store, when customers call, and when they depart.
This tactic is reminiscent of political power word tactics, ingraining the notion of USED into the customer who are bombarded all over the store with the word, as well as rip-offs in the prices (usually only $5 dollars less than the new copy,) and in the trade-in values.
In my 2 years at the company I have worked dozens upon dozens of un-clocked hours. The company loves to reduce pay-roll hours anywhere it can. Now Store managers close alone making them easy targets for hold-ups and robberies. GameStop systemically refuses to hire full-time staff, making associates easily expendable.
It pains me to have to push the discount card , and then reservations for games that don't need to be reserved, and then top it off with pushing for little helpless and ignorant 7-year olds to trade in their treasures for One Buck a pop.
Another thing is when a 'New' game is bought by a customer it may very well be used. We as associates can borrow anything except accessories and hardware. This very much true.
GameStop is getting away with alot. Wal-Mart has caught a lot of flak for the same business practices. Customers MUST PRESS STORE EMPLOYEES WHEN SHOPPING AT GAMESTOP! Give them a hard time, tell them you know that they, as employees, can play these games DEMAND A DISCOUNT or MAKE A SCENE in the store let other customers know.
Shoot me an email. I have a great story about how the corporation has screwed me over and I worked there for 3 years. A great read for you. You'll get a kick out of it.
By the way, GameStop is not a member of the Better Business Bureau.
This is directly from the BBB website on GameStop's standing with the BBB:
Customer Experience
Based on BBB files, this company has an unsatisfactory record with the Bureau due to unanswered complaint(s).
Customer Complaint Data
The company's size, volume of business and number of transactions may have a bearing on the number of complaints received by the BBB.� The complaints filed against a company may not be as important as the type of complaints, and how the company has handled them.� The BBB generally does not pass judgement on the validity of complaints filed.
Number of complaints processed by the BBB over the last 36 months: 108
Number of complaints processed by the BBB in the last 12 months: 33
Complaints Concerned:
Selling Practices (7 complaints)
7 Resolved
Advertising Issues (5 complaints)
4 Resolved
1 Company did not respond
Service Issues (7 complaints)
5 Resolved
1 Company made every reasonable effort to resolve
1 Company did not respond
Credit or Billing Disputes (2 complaints)
2 Resolved
Delivery Issues (3 complaints)
2 Resolved
1 Company made every reasonable effort to resolve
Refund Practices (6 complaints)
5 Resolved
1 Company made every reasonable effort to resolve
Product Quality (4 complaints)
4 Resolved
Contract Disputes (72 complaints)
62 Resolved
2 Unresolved
8 Company made every reasonable effort to resolve
Guarantee or Warranty Issues (2 complaints)
2 Resolved
I have little problem with the employees; I try to just ignore those fruitcakes as much as possible. I'm surprised at how many of them tow the corporate line no matter how badly they're mistreated; kind of like the gamers who continue to shop there no matter how badly they're swindled.
You'd think gamers never heard of ebay or amazon when you see how many spend $18.99 for a used game they could get new ANYWHERE ELSE for $20.
I'm also not surprised that they're stock is doing so well when you consider how many gamers can apparently be fooled into giving Gamestop money long before they expect anything in return when they could just go ANYWHERE ELSE.
My local mall's GS can vouch that they do rip people off. They actually help people, but unfortunately they can't do anything about the trade-in values. They can however, get you out of any mess that you're in with them, because of the company's incompetence. If you're in a mess (e.x. anything from them, xbox is broken, M$ and GS give you a run-around) they'll give you specific advice on what to ask for, what to say, and who to refer to for proof (the gamestop employees/manager will vouch for you in that case).
A friend of mine owns a small chain of game stores in the Cincinnati, OH Tri-State and GameStop is currently suing them out of business.
It's a very sad story and an example of how a big company keeps its competition away by using shady tactics.
GameStop is slamming like 100 charges on the guy so he has to spend money defending himself until he can't afford it. All of lies.
They are having their staff at the stores randomly bad mouthing this guys store, spreading rumors, you name it.
They even took some of his signs down and ripped them up and called the cops on HIM saying he was littering. I could write a long laundry list of their disgusting tactics they are using to try and frame this guy to look like a thuggish asshole.
If any of you currently work at or formerly worked at GameStop in the Cincinnati, OH Tri-State area and you have a story to tell, please let me know.
email me at jason at mmabigshow dot com
As I understand the DM is Mark James and he is making up stories left and right doing everything he can to crush the guys stores.
Someone needs to come forward and demonstrate the sheer audacity of this companies management.
Thanks.
So, the deal with renting games and giving them back has always appauled me. I am a Gamestop employee, and have only done said deed once. I ended up purchasing that copy because A.) I thought it was a fun game and B.) I didn't think it was fair to play a game then sell it back to someone as new.
We tend to get customers in our store who also don't agree with this policy. It truely is shady, but one thing is certain in my store: 90% of the time, an employee checks out a game for a few days, brings it back and finds they like it so much they end up purchasing it. The other 10% is for the lazy bastard who didn't like the game and madingly tossed it back on the shelf.
I know people hate Gamestop for many reasons. We get customers every day who don't agree with our trade ins. I won't even trade things in because of the bad rate in return. Why pay $50 for a game and only get $11 back? Because we'll end up selling it for $30 more than the sell back price. It's cheap. I never really understood that. I guess that's what they call 'good business'.
I'm sorry if you all don't agree with these policies, I don't either. I just have to live with them, otherwise I lose my job. It's probably one of the best jobs I've had, though. The people I work with are amazing and are nothing like those corporate bastards make us out to be. We push reseves and subs, sure, but that's just because we have to. If I could, I'd tell everyone where the deals are as soon as they walk into the store.
-the lone G.A. who loves her job.
Screw "GameStop", I hate this company. I am a GA, and I hate to screw over people, with lousy trade-in prices, and the oh so lovely no refund policy. GameStop hires people at minimum wage, or a little bit higher. This is followed with sucky hours that have you closing on the nights that your boss needs you. I have learned that this is one of the worst companies EVER! There is not a single positive thing that I have to say about GameStop. It is truly a horrible, and shady business! I have learned that a Senior Game Associate, a part time manager, only get a 25 cent raise from minimum wage. That is pathetic, we are talking about a manager position here. Assistant Store Managers only get about 9-10 dollars an hour in our region. This isn't compensated with anywhere from 35-40 hours a week. GameStop does not do OVERTIME! If you put in overtime, you and your manager get written up for it. Now, answer me this, is this the kind of place that you would like to work for? GameStop, power to the players. 8==>~~~~~~GameStop!
As a current employee at GameStop, I have to disagree with all the hate messages. First and foremost, GameStop is corporation, thus you should expect all the aformentioned to occur. All corporate business INCLUDING BEST BUY (with their EXPENSIVE & WORTHLESS warranty program) have their own gimmicks to ensure sales. The Edge Card is FREE with the Subscription to the magazine! Your not buying the "worthless discount card." Your buying the magazine and getting the card for FREE!!! Reserves (while they are annoying) are a customer service. Your guaranteed a copy so that you dont have your sreaming 8 year old on your ass about not getting a special gift from Santa or for a birthday! We save you the trouble of running around. No ones FORCED to buy anything, its our job to inform YOU that we offer the program. The magazine isnt even made by GameStop itself (it almost got pulled from the corporation producing it a few months back). And the ratings are fairly good unlike EGM or GamePro, whos main concern is wrting bs reviews on everything so that people will buy their overpriced magazine! GameStop even bashes their own GAMESTOP EXCLUSIVE GAMES such as Chuplet (got less than a 3/10) in the GAMEINFORMER MAGAZINE. And in response to Anonymous "Sales Associate," you may be right about paying top dollar for older games but maybe you should check eBay or some other store who carries RARE and IMPOSSIBLELY hard games to find such as Rez, Marvel Vs Capcom 2, Disgaea, etc for under $100. OH wait thats right, there is NO other place that sells games that rare for that price. Like it or not GameStop isnt that bad. Its an easy job and not at all as horrible or frightening as you may think. Some people can sell reserves and subs and some people just SUCK at it! Either way, getting paid a couple hundred dollars bi-weekly to be around games and talk with the customers who love them as much as I do is PRETTY F**KIN SWEET!
PEACE out!
Ah, yes. Your grammar displays the level of intelligence that I would associate with a die-hard, pro-GameStop employee.
My 10 year old son advance purchased (with his own money from chores)the Indiana Jones lego so he could get the free shirt and code. He could have bought it cheaper at other places but the shirts and codes are a big deal with his friends. I was with him and not once did the employees tell him that he might not get one. He was the third person to reserve it they told him. When we went to pick it up, the day we were called, they said only one shirt was sent to their store for 7 reserves. I have since email their district manager three times(no response), called corporate to which the lady said "It was free, and while supplies lasted what do you expect us to do about it." The store manager will not call or talk to me, she tell her associates to give me the corp. number. They took his money and should have reserved enough shirts. You can buy them at Legos.com!! I know how corporation work, my son only knows that some one promised him something for his money and he was lied to. How do you explain that to a kid when you are trying to teach him trust in others. I guess he got a lesson, just not theone I had hoped. The corp. office gave me the district managers phone number, to pass the buck from them, doubt if he calls.
Any suggestions what to try next or just give up the fight?
J.
Thats the legal loophole. I bet that GS has hundreds of people serching through the books to find all sorts of loops in the law, just so they can extort peopel
and there probably isnt anything you can do. its compleatly legal, as long as they said it was as supplys lasted
I am also an employee of Gamestop and I agree with the first poster. Honestly, I don't do the check out on new games, because as everyone else, I want my new games to be "factory sealed" new. The point of taking the games out of the cases and putting them in an envelope, is to prevent loss or theft. But seeing as I'm the lowest rank that an employee can get, there is really not much I can to to change the business.
I really am getting tired of the business because, if you DON'T get subscriptions and preorders you get SHIT hours. Not to mention the fact that the hours are based on the kids. During the school year, expect not to work much... as in like... 3.5-5 hours a week.
So as post 1 has said, you can hate the peons all you want but WE do not make the decisions about what we are supposed to do. I'm just following orders.
Oh and, if you don't hate us peons, thank you for understanding our strife. The company hates us enough as it is.
There was one thing that post 2 said that I would like to clarify. At my store no one ever closes alone, but the safe has a TIMED LOCK. And when I say timed, I mean about 10-20 minutes. So if someone comes to rob the store, and they find they have to wait 20 minutes for the safe to unlock, you get shot, they leave.
So my point is, Gamestop doesn't care about customers or employees. Just the money they rake in.
In response to Dextrone:
Employees cannot change the trade in values.
My recent experience with Gamestop...
I recently moved, and while packing discovered that I had way more XBOX games than I realized, most of which I hadn't played for quite a while.
So I figured out which ones I wanted to keep, which I wanted to sell or "trade-in" and headed over to my local Gamestop. Now, I know from past experience that Gamestop's trade-in prices are beyond miserable, but I ignored this factoid for two reasons:
A) I knew I could sell them all on eBay or Amazon, but I didn't want to spend the time selling all these games, when most of them probably wouldn't sell for much anyway.
B) I did not want to spend the time it would take to sell each one of these games online.
So I took these games (about 27 I think) to Gamestop, and proceeded with the trade-in; For 15 original XBOX titles of varying genre, release date, etc. and 4 XBOX 360 titles, I was give a grand total of $57 dollars of store credit.
In other words, 19 games traded-in got me barely enough credit for another slightly used game. And this is after they rejected about 8 other games for scratches, "burns", and something about refurbishing costs being more than the game is worth.
In the end, I once again felt like I got screwed, but at the same time I saved myself countless hours spent marketing the games on eBay, and was able to get rid of a pile of games that I had been dragging around for far too long.
So all in all, I think it was good choice for myself.
But then, that's just my perspective.
All I have to say is, quit ur bitchin and shop elsewhere if you don't like how things are ran in that store and if ur an employee that hates their job at gamestop, then quit! Simple as that...so stop complaining.
I have been working at my local GameStop for the last 9 months. I have just been promoted to the position of Senior Game Advisor. In the past 9 months I have been witness to the numerous delays of Smash bros. brawl, the release of Mario Kart, the release of Wii Fit, and have fielded about 900,000 calls that all began with "do you have the Wii?" I work in a rather rich part of Southern California and have to say that I am a bit conflicted about the job. Let me begin by assuring you that I am one of you. I have been an avid gamer for all my life and as such have always loved the idea of a store that sells video games and only video games. It gives me great joy to walk through the door each day and spend hours talking about video games with the gamers that give us a visit.
First: I love having a job where I get to talk about video games all day. I get to tell people what is good, what is bad, what to play, what to put back of the shelf (I'm looking at you Kane and Lynch) but the part of each transaction that I dread most comes after the person has selected their game; when I go to ring them up and I know I have to start hocking shit. I have no problem hocking shit. I am magnificent at it. In a sales contest that I know won me a promotion and permanent job security I sold 98 Pre-orders and 50-Game Informer subscriptions over 5 5 hour shifts. I'm not exaggerating on those numbers. Why would I? You hate me for selling that stuff! My difficulty comes in realizing that I am expected to hock this person something that they don't want. When they mention during our conversation that they can't wait for Gears of War 2, I tell them they can get it at midnight if they preorder, that we will guarantee it on November 7th. That we will be sold out apart from preorders. This is not a lie at our store. They send us our pre-orders plus 4 copies. Those 4 copies are for guts (the opened games on the shelf) and they will sell to "walk-ins" on the day of release. I don't lie when I say we will be sold out for the first day. However, the second day will find a shipment of at least 30 more copies, but I digress. The part of my job I hate: the hocking. Now, he has pre-ordered Gears of War 2, and is buying....let's say Rainbow Six Vegas 2 used for 50$. I hope he has an edge card....but he doesn't. Almost on its own the pitch pours from my mouth and I am selling him this card, I have scanned the magazine, and borrow his license for a moment. Mere seconds later I have totaled the purchase and ask for payment. This man just gave me $15 dollars (15 for the mag + 5 for the pre-order -5 he saved on the game) and I really hope he takes it back. I hope he buys 2 more used games this year at 50$ apiece. I hope he picks up Gears, but he probably won't and that is why the customers lose. If you have an unclaimed preorder on Brawl when you walk into my store tomorrow, you probably want me to tell you, right? You probably want your five bucks back. Company policy tells me to shut my trap unless you tell me to cancel it. If you ask I have to cancel it for you, I HAVE TO! All you need to do is ask. I will try to make you pre-order something else so I don't get -1 preorders from you, but if you insist, I hand you 5 cash. I HAVE TO. Today, a man walked into my store to preorder (full payment on each) Fable 2, Fallout 3, Gears of War 2. He has Mass Effect fully paid off in the system (64.64) same for Ratchet and Clank for ps3 (64.64). Company policy says shut up and take more of his money. Today I followed company policy, and I'm pissed that I did. Perhaps that is the reason for this diatribe. I really hope this guy remembers he pre-ordered these games the next time he comes in, but he probably won't.
Second: I don't sell used product as new at my store. At least not in the traditional sense. I will not take a trade-in from a customer and put a new sticker on it. There isn't even a way to make that work in the system without manually overriding it in inventory. I don't sell returned new games because I don't return new games. If they are defective, I ship them out, I don't sell them. Any store operating based on corporate regs should do the same.
Third: Employee checkouts are fun. They are probably the only thing that keep people at their job at GS. If you don't sell stupid amounts of Resos (reserves) and Subs (Game Informer subscriptions) you will not be promoted, you will get your minimum annual raise ($0.25) so there is really not a lot that makes it a rewarding job, but if you are a gamer then the prospect of free rentals is quite attractive. I almost always have a game checked out. I don't scratch or otherwise damage games, I don't take things out of the envelope, I even clear the memory on DS titles I check out before bringing them back. The reason I feel that this is justified: pending. I do bring my checked-out new games back to the store in new condition. They are indiscernible from their box-laden counterparts in any way apart from a factory seal and are perfectly identical to a gut. I even reshuffle the guts to make sure that the one I checked out is now lost to even me. I can now sell in peace and tell the customer that the gut copy has never been played, just put in the drawer on release day and never moved from there. Like a shooter in a firing line, I am unsure whether my own rifle had a bullet that time. This is why I try to check out used games as opposed to new.
Fourth: I buy used games. I buy used games almost exclusively. The store guarantees the disc to play and if it doesn't I will be at the store again shortly to return and exchange the disc (the defective one is shipped out, don't worry!) The used game is cheaper than the new and 54.99 quickly becomes 49.49 with my edge card. I buy games more than 3 times a year so the card's cost of 15$ is always recouped in my case. If you buy 3 games a year, buy one. If you don't buy that many, don't buy one. I own one because I don't see the point of new games. I have to gut games ever day I work. I am sick and tired of opening factory seals. I get paid to open up seals, so why would I pay an extra 10$ to open up another?
Fifth: With some rare exceptions, the employees at your local Gamestop hate you right back. Not you gamers, let me be clear on this. You are a breath of fresh air to me when you walk in and know what you want. You bring joy to us all when you realize that Wii and just about everything Nintendo makes for it is difficult to find right now. You make my heart smile by not asking me why XB360 titles don't play on your PS2 or when Halo will be out on the Wii. (both based on real questions I got at work today) You know things and you make my job easier. When I say that I hate my customers, I do not mean you. I mean everyone else. For the purposes of completing my job they are strictly counterproductive. In fact, to ameliorate this counter productivity I will analyze grouped cases in a sub list:
a: the hordes of people that think magical elves organize the alphabetical arrangement of games on the wall. They pick a game up and put it down wherever they see fit. I know these people have never worked in a retail job. They think I press a button at closing time and the games find their homes on their own. But in reality, I stay 30 minutes longer to undo their mess. I know that this is my job, I know I get paid to do it, but why do they have to pick it up? If you don’t want to buy it, leave it on the shelf! If you pick it up and later decide not to buy it, you could put it back where you found it or just hand it to me. Please don’t bury the box to my gut of MGS 4 in a bin somewhere so that when a gamer wants to buy it I have to tell them there is not box art!
b: Wii searchers. They don't know why they can't get one and they don't even know how much they cost but their kid sure does want one and they hope I have one for them and they don’t mean to bother me and they just need a favor this one time and they didn’t know they were still hard to find and they want to get Wii fit with it and they need a copy of Mario Kart and they wonder if the store next door has it, but we don’t. It’s all sold out. If you need a Wii, get a part time job at Target/Best Buy/Wal-Mart/Circuit City. Employees see the ad early, as well as the weekday shipment that is held until Sunday for the ad. Have the electronics guy put one on hold. Then quit your job at whichever of these terrible employers you chose (I’ve been at all) and leave with your Wii and a better understanding of the plight of the retail worker. (Refer to item a)
c: Barterers. I don’t own the store. Gamestop is a multi-billion dollar corporation. They set prices/trade-in values so you can’t barter with me on them. Please stop trying, it won’t ever work. I’m not the one buying your old crap from you. I’m not kidding when I say that the bulk of my customers don’t know I’m part of a chain. To the readers of gamestopsucks this must be inconceivable, but it’s true. They think I set my own prices, they think I make my own orders; they think I care whether or not they buy from me. I don’t.
Now that I am reaching the end of this rant I’d like to part with a few extra notes. If you would like to forever shut up the guy behind the counter, pre-order a game. Do it once with 5$ of your money. Fable 2 is a good one right now because it comes with free pub games (though the minimum for this game is 10$ for just that reason). Put this under your own name, use a phone number you will remember. Don’t pick up that pre-order. Instead, the next time you come in, buy your stuff and say you want to pre-order something else. Give them the same phone number this time, mention the pre-order on Fable 2 and tell them to move it over to game x. Rinse and repeat with each visit. If you want to be extra nice to the person, let them pitch something then pretend the pitch worked! Let them think their cunning saved them from a cancellation. If their manager is there they may even get rewarded with more hours. Rinse and repeat with each visit and you will be fine. Apart from that, the website is a great tool for venting frustrations. If a store offends you, take down the name of the offender (if they rang you up it is on the top of the receipt) and make a complaint on the site against the store number and employee. If they treat you like shit, that sucks. I hope they don’t. They do hate you for shopping there, but there is no real reason that they should show it. The same should apply for you as well and may your hatreds go as unspoken (at least in public) as mine.
To anyone who read this: thanks.
I try not to buy from gamestop when at all possilbe. I do my best to support the local businesses and if that fails I'll go to warmart or target before I ever got to Gamestop. You don't find that good a deals there on newer games. Sure if your looking for a more obsure title than your kind of forced to go there. At my local gamestop The employees are often rude and are ubernerds that just rub me the wrong way.
How horrible is Gamestop? I didn't last 6 months. It was maddening, my boss even commented once that I zoned out and seemed to have become less cheerful and upbeat. It eats away at you the longer you work there when they screw you out of the 2.5-4 hours everyday of your life while you count their registers, organize their stupid shelves and put stickers on trade-ins of sports games that were all bought back for .50 cents a piece!
When you can't get a game system to a customer cause your store doesn't have enough room for consoles so you gotta stick them in the bathroom and someone's in there (yes, that's right...the BATHROOM!). They won't even give the employees a decent discount on games, they convince you of the value of your GMR card by giving you like a tiny percentage more on used games! No new games here even for employees (at least while I was there)! Meanwhile your used game take-ins percentage is hovering around 15%...you'd better shape up soon next week cause that's just not how Gamestop works! Dont' assume that Pokemon kid isn't gonna reserve Halo 3 cause for every 5 people that turn you down there's bound to be 1 with a 360 and each 1 is a win...for Gamestop. >_<
By the time that 6th month came, I got another job at a company that folded within 3 months. Didn't go back after that nope, I would rather be jobless than work for them again, that's extreme I know but it was just that bad. Sometimes you value money, but for those of us who are lucky enough to have a benefactor for a short time, take all the opportunity you can to get away from that place and find something better...you can definitely do so and you're worth more than that. It's not worth it to wither away your optimism for the world to work for a company that horrible. And I had GREAT...great coworkers and an understanding boss too btw...so even that can't help sometimes.
All I gotta say for you Associates out there is BEST BUY. Do yourself a favor, take the online application every few months. You'll be better off for it in the long run (I know another corporate but the discount is actually worth it).
I went to game stop today. I wanted to get Fable, The Lost Chapters. So I go in, buy the used copy and wait while the guy rings it up. He does the whole envelope routine, and I leave. When I get home, I open the case and find the original Fable. I was annoyed, it was a 15 minute drive, but whatever, I figure the kid behind the counter just messed up, the disks are similar looking. So I go back to correct the mistake, and I swear the kid says, "Oh yeah, we were out of the expansion so I just gave you the regular Fable." He didn't tell me, didn't say anything. Just gave me the wrong game. Plus, the fact that you need an ID to return. I have one, but still, what if I was some kid who got sold the wrong game, and then didn't have ID? Its ridiculous.
I've personally never worked at gamestop or any of its affiliates, and I never plan to. After doing a bit of research, and reading all the fucked up things that employees have to go through, I really don't plan to shop there any more.
In fact, I feel more of a jackass shopping there, and not even realizing the longing pain in the eyes of those poor bastards behind the counter. No wonder when I did shop at gamestop, there would be different people EVERY TIME. I really never had an issue, I just bought my games, possibly asked for advice on a purchase, and then went on my merry way. Now that I look back, I feel bad for the employees and all the shit they go through.
I do work for a corporation, and beleive me when I say sometimes you just want to put a bullet in your head when you don't make enough revenue, and people start getting hours cut, loosing benefits - etc, etc.
Oh, beleive me - I'll be spreading the word.
CHEERS and good luck!
My Daughter went to Game Stop in Rockwall Texas and Bought Halo 2 and a X-box System to play it, and they sold her a Arcade system that wont play any original x-box games and they refuse to do anything about it. She trusted them. Its not right !
I quit playing games long ago. Between having a family, and the insane price of buying a game new these days, I just said "screw it". I'm just not stupid enough to shell out $50 and $60 for a video game. Sadly, my wife wants a PS3, and my it seems my only solutin is to buy used games. (I always bought new when I was into it more)
I've never been inside a Gamestop in my life, so I have to ask, just how much are they asking for used games?
It is of my opinion that the only fair price would be $25 or less. If this were the real price, I can see why one would only get $10 for a used game. The store has to make a profit. What kills me here, is it seems from what some of you have said, that the price of used games is around $30 and $40. That is just absurd, and no wonder some of you are bitching about getting so little for a used game.
I guess I see why I got the hell out of gaming while the gettin' was good. Gamers are being bent over without even recieving a reach around these days. This corporate BS about the cost of hardware and the games is a crock of shit. The only reason games sell new for $60 a wack, is because there are still people foolish enough to do so.
No wonder people have turned to bit-torrent/copyright infringement as well.
I totally agree with the first comment. I currently work at GameStop for not even a year and it is horrible!!
I hate how people think how amazing is must be to work there. It's not. They will rip you off any way they can with their prices.
Also, we really are threatened by not meeting a quota of reserves and subscriptions which could end up in write-ups and/or termination. We employees can't hold a gun to the customer's head and force them to buy the worthless card which is why most employees that work there are either miserable or pushy.
Unfortunately for most folk, GameStop is the only game store around since there's only 3 on every block.
If you have the choice, go to Best Buy, Circuit City, ect. At least they have a better return policy.
One more thing. During the hottest days of the summer, (reaching almost 98 degrees) we had absolutely no air conditioning in the store for almost a month. somehow amazingly it took them a full month to ship the pieces needed to fix it when they said it would only take 2 weeks max. my manager and i nearly passed out from heat exhaustion. funny it's almost fall already and we hardly need the air conditioning anymore.
I think it's funny how I get about a 30% discount at Barnes & Nobels and only 15% for GameStop. AND I WORK AT GAMESTOP. and to be even more dicks about it, we can't use our discounts on systems. only used, shitty ones with cockroaches coming out of them. I'm not even kidding.
I went to Gamestop to trade in my PS2 system for cash. They took it to the backroom and were there for like 2 minutes. They came back and denied the system because there was a crack on the side. THE SYSTEM NEVER HAD A CRACK ON THE SIDE!!! IT WAS IN PERFECT CONDITION! Those bastards droped my PS2 system and claimed it was brought in like that.
Never again do i go to gamestop.
but i still buy games from Reign of games dot com. Perhaps try them out sometime.
Looks like you aren't the only one that dislikes gamestop.
http://www.onepissedoffguy.com/stories/091508.html
Well i have a rant to say about my local gameSLOP it seems they hire either people that dont know about gaming because i kept asking to reserve mortal kombat vs DC and i was looked at like i was insane but that not the point a certain local employee is not only a bad store clerk but also found out that he is a pedophile because this employee is 23 and is going out with a 16yr fucked up yes... all i have to say is way to go Gamestop with hiring dumbasses for store clerks way to go.. .so i go to my local game shop better than this stupid corporate chain!
Hey folks, do you really care THAT much that your game has never been opened before? PREORDER IT, DUMBFUCKS! I guarantee we will give you all the pleasure of breaking the factory seal.
I sold my ps3 ps2 gamecube about 7 playstation 2 games 3 gb games a wii game and an xbox 30 game (all consoles with wires memory cards and controllers) and had only enough to buy an xbox 360 game with 1 cent left. that ps3 was like 500 dollers and ps2 50$ and i got like 150 dollers for the ps3 25$ for the ps2 and 10 bucks for the gamecube and like 25 dollers for the games. They pretty much robbed me. The least they could do was ask to bag it for me but they didnt even offer. Gamestop is gonna fail and im gonna laugh.
I too hate Gamestop today I try to sell back a computer game my computer didn't want to download back to them but the stupid manager said they couldn't. I was gonna tell them my computer couldn't play the game. Stupid ass Gamestop.
I work at GameStop - I worked for EB, and I had the most wonderful manager. Recently, GameStop decided to replace said wonderful manager with a corporate slave who does nothing but bitch and make everyone do all the work. Relays, marketing, etc. He does nothing. He also broke one of the biggest policy rules ever.
I want to destroy GameStop from the inside, but I don't want to work there any longer.
I'm pretty sick of the gamestop rules on returned games. I once got $12 for a game that was being displayed on the shelf for $29. I feel like I should be getting more money for this so Iwas referred to a small website to sell games at my own price. It worked for me for a few games but it needs more users to get more offers. Check it out www.electronicgamelist.com.
It's been a LONG time with no new updates...what's the deal? If you need more ammunition, say the word:
www.tomfoolery4.wordpress.com
Happy to be of service in any way I can...
yours,
Tom Waters
I was outraged to see how little they offer to buy games for. I just sold 2 of my games for 12 dollars!!! They claim that they need to take 20% off for giving out cash. I am sincerely PISSED! Shoot me an email on some stories Shankdum@hotmail.com
My grandson always buys his games from a gamestop store but I will never buy another game from their stores, because he bought a three in new game, and one of the CD's was scratched. Two days later, gamestops managers at two stores told he that he could only exchange it for 90% less than what we paid.
Losing our business won't break gamestop but word of mouth is the best advertiser.
FORMER GAMESTOP SHOPPER
Dude, we don't even have that policy anymore.
But I'm glad to see that this site hasn't been updated in the last year.
Yeah I don't like the company who seems to frown down on the very people who bring them in business, but of all the other video game retailers I'm glad that I'm working at GameStop rather then Best Buy.
First off, I've worked at GameStop for three years. Been through three managers, several part-time employees, many district managers, etc. I have the highest seniority of any employee at my store (and probably most of the other employees in my district!) and honestly, while I don't really like the company, it's much better than some jobs out there.
I used to be a Senior Game Advisor but stepped down because I now sell THEIR games on ebay for a living. Sure, there are some practices that I don't believe in, such as the opening games and placing the case on the shelf. But we have no choice. Coporate tells us to, and the developers don't send us enough game cases for display. At least its better than going to Target or Wal-mart and have to wait for some inept no-gaming knowledge employee to come open the case let you see the game for a minute and decide if you want to buy it.
And the checkout policy, I only checkout used games because they are still used. New games should never be checked out. And I hate those suckers who think they can just buy one used game and keep returning it for another game for weeks or months on end. Not at my store. I am PROUD to say that I added the most names to my store's trade-in and return banned list for abusing the policy (or for selling stolen crap to our store- all you stupid criminals are pathetic...)
Plus the edge card does save you money. Unless you live in a place like Chicago where the sales tax is almost the same. Game Informer is better than most gaming magazines (although I do like EGM) and is more of a trustworthy review source than some online DB.
I don't understand the gripes with the pre-order policy. True, reserves do determine most of our game supplies, but not all. Second, why the hell do you care if you reserve a game if you plan on buying it? The money is refundable anyways! We are pushed too much for this anyways, but its just our jobs.
I think it's funny that GS is trying to close down other companies. Only the stongest survive in business and this company is apparently the weaker end and deserve their fate. Weakness is a flaw and strength always triumphs. What about Wal-Mart doing this? Sure, no one mentions the store that owns all is doing the same thing but worse!
Another funny thing is that many of these posters probably still shop at GS on a regular basis despite their hatred. In some stick towns, where else are you going to go to trade stuff in? Sure you can go elsewhere to buy new games, but used games? And I agree with whoever mentioned about the really rare games. Yeah, try finding a copy of any rare game at some "Mom & Pop store" for GS prices (with some exceptions). Not going to happen. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance at GS: 25.00 on Amazon: 40+.
The trade-in values make sense, except for all those out there with no business knowledge. Why the hell would you give someone 40.00 for a used game that sells new for 60.00 if the game sucks and no one is going to buy it? Take GTA IV for example. The reason why the trade-in value is 12.00 or whatever is because every store has tons of copies! My store has over 100 copies for the Xbox 360. Are we going to give out 30 or 40 for something that we have a bunch of that we don't need any more of? Those values are determined by the companies stock, resale factor, previous entries in the series (the reason why Madden 08 is 1.00 in trade...who wants 08 when you can have 09?), and so forth. Can you possibly expect to operate a business by giving out almost the same price that it was bought new for? No. Games drop in price and so do their trade-in values.
The return policy is the same elsewhere. Sometimes, we make exceptions to the new game return policy. But rarely. If you go to Wal-Mart, Best Buy, etc. you are screwed once that plastic wrap is off. You get the same title and that's it. Ours is better than most. Plus do you think you can return something that is new and been played? What the hell are we supposed to do with this game now? Defect it out and lost money on the game? Just a bunch of stupid customers who can't read is all these fools are. Learn to read the return policy that is CLEARLY stated on the receipt.
Lastly on my ranting, without having actually worked at a GS, most of you people cannot say too much. You do not know the kind of crap we employees go through on a daily basis (stupid customers, stupid kids, people who can't put games back where they belong!, etc.). This job is stressfull, even more so than my other jobs I've had. The funniest thing I hear is that we play games all day. What a fucking piece of shit that is. Many people couldn't stand to work here. So in the future, before you go ranting about my company, please realize all the shit we have to deal with daily and probably with your dumb ass as well.
GAMESTOP, WALMART, HOME DEPOT, BEST BUY, MICROSOFT, MAC, OFFICE DEPOT, STAPLES, all the major enormous businesses are what led to the destruction of the American small business way of life. We are done for and it is thanks to vile companies like Gamestop. As a Gamestop Manager (yes, that's right, I run a store) I sometimes cry at night wishing I could just let everyone take everything out of the store, all those kids wasting their money and their parent's money on utter crap and mind fucking nonsense. And the worst part? Gamestop sells other people's shit. They take it in, slap a label on it, and resell it that very day. Unless it is so ripped apart that we "cant get away with it" and it has to be sent out for repair and or resurfacing, everything that comes from dirty homes and filthy bedrooms filled with cockroaches, cigarettes, drugs, and other things that get caught in the game console's fans, gets put right on the shelf, day after day. I just bought a trade in today of a XBOX360 headset from a guy you would not want to stand near. He was disgusting (no offense to him I suppose, but he was a greasy smelly slimy person) and one of my associates put it in a bag and hung it on the wall just moments later. And that is every day. And the systems??? HA! We toss them around to get to other things, call them "refurbished" and sell them to unsuspecting kids who return them days later because something does not work or it has ripped up their favorite game with a laser burn...and does Gamestop replace that $60 dollar game they ripped up by selling a damaged device to some idiot? NOPE. They take in trades all day long, dirty ripped up games and handhelds and such, paying pennies, then resurface them for practically nothing and sell at huge profits. Gamestop is now the largest game retailer in the world. They sell crap, make crap, price fix, do not honor their own promises, lie to the customer, and in essence, should be investigated and closed down. And this coming from a Store Manager. Oh, and the pay? Not enough to even cover my apartment rent. If I had kids or a wife or even a pet? Forget it. NOT a living wage, and I am considered to be a model employee, winning awards, getting bonuses of "free games" gee thanks...what a bunch of sickening bullshit. DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH GAMESTOP! BRING BACK SMALL BUSINESSES! KILL THEM ALL! ME INCLUDED! I WOULD GLADLY DIE FOR THE REVOLUTION!
Of course, no name attached.
I know how the last responder feels. (I posted the entry before yours) I work at a rather bad location and we see lots of filthy crap come through our doors. Greasy controllers, consoles with dead roaches in it, etc. It is amazing what people live in. My old manager used to slap refurb services on nasty consoles or turn them away saying that it was "not resaleable" even though we are not supposed to do that. He was cool and our store was one of the best in the district in about every category. He ran that store with an aggressive attitude towards our standards, which I miss. Too bad he resigned because I think he knew that the worst was yet to come (this was right before GS and EB's merger became noticable in stores with policies, etc.). I wish I could have left then too.
First off Im a gamestop employee. I enjoy my job, my store has the highest customer service rating in our district. Our district includes three states. We are the only store that is in the first quartile.. that means our customer service sales and other things match up to expectations. We know 65% of the customers that walk in the door. We try and help people. The prices we set on used games arient us.. We just tell them what them computer says. So if you have a problem with what we give, sell it somewhere like walmart or target.. Wait you caint, its either ebay or us. ANd since ebay takes time we are the lesser evil. Im the type of person that caint stare at 40 used games i never play, ive always taken advantage of the trade in. I dont replay many games so the idea that i let them sit there when 20 make a new game so 40 makes two is great in my eyes. I enjoy my job i hate corperate. Ive gotten a phone call before that said your signature pad is on the wrong com port. So i change it to the one they tell me to. I ring someone up and its not working, i call corperate and they ask me why i changed it. I kindly explain that they called me telling me to change it. They just say well i did it wrong then they tell me to do the same thing and i say thats how its set. Then they tell me to put my manager on.. Im like he's busy im on the phone now. Can i just put it back to the original settings, they say no it did'nt work that way.. I tell them yes it did, i get flustered my manager gets on the phone and says that he figured it out. he looks at me and tells me to fix it and starts going on a long rant about how he hates corperate and starts throwing things and everyone in the store just laughs cuz thats normal around here. We try and help people, we do take opend games quite often becasue we now things happend and games suck. We take different business princaples into work than others and i think thats why were number one. We not sell more things that some in our area but we are better all around. Im sorry for all the bad things that people go through but some folks do over react and some folks look for reasons to b**ch. and we all know people like that. And in my area the edge card is worth it btw.. OUrs doubles sales tax so you do get a discount lol. I know in some areas its worthless but look at it like this... your cheating our crappy govt that sticks it to you all the time. So anyone who said they will go to walmart from now on.. Just enjoy your drug ridden backwoods know nothing do nothing emplyees that caint give any reviews on games much less find the one you need
So I bought a PS3 today at my local Gamestop. Took it home, set up, and found that it would not ready any games or DVDs. Took it back to the store, had them set up and see that it wasn't good. Asked if I could just exchange it for a new one. But for some reason, their "system" doesn't allow for same day returns. What kind of BS is this? So I am taking it back tomorrow and getting my money back and not getting a new one. Why should I give them my business?
My gamestop is at a mall in northern maryland.
They hire to many kids who dont even play video games. Maybe some of you have had this problem, where you are going to buy a game and the clerks tell you "it has bad reviews" "here buy this one instead" its not fair. Dont you agree?
Somebody needs to sue these faggot cock suckers, they are the definition of bad business in America.
I honestly don't think gamestop itself is a bad company.From what I have heard it's the employees.Think about it.Does someone working mininum wage really give a shit about a new game you bought and then opening it only finding it to be scratched?
No.They couldn't care less.Personally my gamestop guys are nice.The only true way you get "ripped off" is when you dont expect to loose money.When I trade in a game I know damn well that I will only get 1/4 of what it's worth.But they need to do this.If they don't sell used games more than what they gave for them they won't make a profit and in order for a company to survive they need profit.ex)buy 1 game-50 bucks
trade in-22 bucks-sell back to public as used- 44 bucks
They just made an extra 22 bucks.its a fair system.
I live in Colorado and I also work at gamestop and i don't mind the people who i work with but i went to the store #1700 to buy a game that my store didn't have and the manager (jay) who works there was not polite in anyway, he was swearing in front of kids and you can tell that their parents were uncomfortale with it and left right away. He was rude to customers and his associates, he was very cocky and some of the customers who come to our store says that they would never go back to that store again because they were treated badly.
So the next day that i worked i told my manager what i saw, he said to just leave things how it is because gamestop doesn't need anymore complaints, i was thinking about calling the complaint line but i don't want get involved and might loose my job...
So just a heads up to everyone who live in Colorado to not goto that store for your own sake :)
GameStop #1700
Thorncreek Crossing
901 E. 120th Avenue
Thornton CO, 80233 US
Though I may not be an employee, as a customer, I have suffered too. I was an avid GBA player (now DS, so sue me), and I would go to GameStop to look for all those GameBoy and GBA rarities that my local Wal-Mart would only carry in very small amounts (Or not at all, in the case of Riviera: The Promised Land and all GB/C games). Well, I bought a "used" copy of Final Fantasy IV, as well as various other games. When I took a closer look at it game, I noticed the casing was a little darker than the usual cartridge. I brushed it off until I got home and played it. When I was about an hour or so into the game, it crashed. Obviously, it was a pirated copy of the game. The next day, I went to exchange it for a legitimate copy, and the clerk told me that the copy was pirated, and he couldn't take it! What was worse was that he was also working the day I bought it! Since then, I go back every once in a while to see if there are pirated games, and every time I go there, there are usually a couple. The last one I saw was a Pokémon LeafGreen pirate. The dead give-a-way was that they used a gray cartridge instead of the green one (and they gave it an E10+ rating when it is E). Yeah, after recently seeing the pirated LeafGreen and reading about how employees can "rent" the games, my business with GameStop will be minimal.
I have filed numerous complaints about this GameStop to corporate, but nothing, so I have given up.
The store's address is below, if you are near and would like to check out pirated games (oh, and let's not forget broken consoles!).
GameStop (I have no clue what number)
6625 Mayfield Road
Mayfield Heights, OH 44124
And yes, the GameStop headquarters has some shady practices too. While I understand that they are a company and are out to make money, there are things just flat out wrong. I do not know if it is corporate policy to do this, but another GameStop location I visited a while ago actually took apart a 360 Elite and sold it in parts. I noticed this, because someone was buying the system and it had no hard drive and included only basic A/V Composite cables as well as a white wired remote!
As said before, I know they are a company that is out to make money, but some of their trade-in values are crap. When I went to go pickup my preordered Wii, I decided to bring some old Gamecube games along to see how much they were worth. One of the games that I had appraised was Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest. Now, as some of you might know, the game is fairly hard to come by in near-mint condition, even online. Gamestop only offered me around $5 for it (Not sure of exact price, but it was in the single digits. I also understand they do not give credit/cash according to the condition)! Never-the-less, I kept it, as well as every other game I was planning on trading in. (I just checked the website, and Cubivore is not even there).
those bitchs at game stop in ireland a guy called robert the manager was so arrogant to my dad he said stuff like your an idiot to just go thinking stuff like that my dad was nearly gonna kill him one guy who works there alot better said you can easily get it replaced but we forgot the receipt we got the receipt and came back and robert was there and he said we dont just give new ones away the warantie was for 12 months but the xbox 360 was only 9 months old and he said that we would have to wait 6 weeks to get it back cause he had to send them to dublin for microsoft i think he should be fired after all he was in court 5 times for poeple who beat the crap out of him he works in douglas co cork dunes stores if hes not fired alot of poeple will sue gamestop my aunt my uncle my best freind wants him dead every one hates him he tryed to get my mom as his girlfreind to i want him gone or else we will all sue
Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2009 11:33:02 -0600
> From: storeissues@gamestop.com
>
> Subject: Re: TellGameStop Issue (KMM4533859I15977L0KM)
>
> Dear Valued Customer,
>
> Thank you for your feedback.
>
> Unfortunately we will be unable to file your compliant against store
> 2666. The reason for this is because the store associate was following
> our Return/Exchange Policy. We do not allow refunds of opened new
> games, used games outside of 7 days from the date of purchase, or
> unopened new items outside of 30 days from the date of purchase.
> Exchanges will be offered for defective items up to 30 days after the
> purchase. You can review the GameStop Return Policy at anytime prior to
> the purchase, either at the front window or the register. The Return
> Policy is also printed on the receipt. We apologize for any
> inconvenience.
>
> Additionally, preorders must be picked up at the store in which they
> were made, because you are reserving a physical item to be ready for
> pick-up, and the store makes their orders based upon these preorder
> numbers. If everyone who preordered at every Gamestop decided to pick
> them up at one location, there would obviously not be enough to go
> around. Preorders are always refundable, and your money has not been
> lost. You simply need to visit the store where the preorder was made
> for a refund.
>
> If you have any further questions please respond to this email.
>
> Best Regards,
> Justin
> GameStop Customer Service
>
>
> Original Message Follows:
> ------------------------
> Date Received: 1/24/2009 8:19:11 PM
> Receipt Date:
>
> Store(Information) - Transaction number: 02666 / 01 - 018
> Feedback number: 372k7 - 3yhuj
> Comments: I wanted to get a wii for my son for Christmas. Knowing that I
> probably wouldn't be able to buy one around the holidays I started
> looking in June. I happened to get one when I found out a shipment came
> in the end of July. My friend and I both bought one. I put the wii in
> the closet and waited for Christmas, happy that the big present was out
> of the way. We spend quite a lot of money at Gamestop but after the
> customer service I encountered recently we are considering shopping
> elsewhere. When my son opened his wii he was pleased but asked if he
> could exchange it for an xbox IF we could transfer the data from our
> other xbox. So after getting conflicting information for different
> employees about transfering the data, we finally got the answer we were
> hoping for and headed to gamestop to exchange the wii for the xbox.
> However, we were told we could not exchange it (nor were we given any
> other option)due to the purchase being in July. If I could have gotten
> it in Dec. I would have and there would be no issue. I opened one remote
> to check it out becasue it looked different from our current wiis
> remote, other than that nothing had been opened. He treated me as if I
> was trying to pull something on him and pulled the "policy" card. I
> simply wanted to exchange the Christmas gift for what my son actually
> wanted. I know that there are policies butI'm also aware that policies
> have gray areas as the majority of my job is customer service. My other
> issue is I reserved the world tour at one game stop that's not by my
> house and tried to pick it up at the one by my house and was told I
> couldn't pick it up at a different store-even though I asked before I
> reserved it-so I had to pay full price and lost my reservation money. I
> need to know if something can be done. We have several other options for
> our gaming needs. We spend quite a bit of money at Gamestop monthly but
> cannot keep dealing with these issues. On a good note, until recently I
> have had a great experience with Gamestop but due to the 2 recent issues
> that now have cost me $295.62 I will be unable to spend any more money
> with your company unless these isues can be resolved. We have another
> wii, 2 ps2s,an xbox & 2 WOWers
Come on gamestop like all corporations have there ways of making more money what retail store do you go in know a days and not get a least one sales pitch. In regards to customer service name one retail that you can walk in to and had a list to and they get everything for you. Dont get me wrong they make a killing on trade in values and should give more money but your paying for the convience of being able to sell your games all at once.
HEY,
last week i ordered the game driver 3 from gamestop online. and they sent it to me in 4 days (i asked for three but whatever) when it go here i tried it out and it didnt work. i look at the little sticker on the corner and there was a white sticker placed on top of it. i took that sticker off and under it there was a label that said returned defective. i was pisseed that they sent me a game that they knew was defective. and even more so because they tried to cover it up.....
I, too, work at Gamestop - and at a rather higher 'rank'(not that it means anything) than the anonymous posters above me. Everything they are saying is quite true.
Trust me, we don't care if you subscribe to GI. In fact, that magazine sucks and none of us read it. We don't care if you reserve games because honestly except for the occasional special edition or unpopular rare import, you can buy it day one at a million different places.
But we spend EVERY DAY getting reamed from up on high about our 'numbers'. Every person working needs to have a few subscriptions to GI and quite a few reserves every shift, every day. It's ridiculous, of course, and it generally doesn't happen - but we take endless hell for it. Those who are hourly receive little to zero hours if they don't 'perform', and everyone is threatened and given a hard time over it nonstop.
Trust me when I say that maybe one out of twenty Gamestop employees actually thinks what he's hocking on you is worth your while.
So by all means, don't reserve or subscribe - but at least decline politely, because the guy behind the counter doesn't like it any more than you do.
Oh, and our trade practices are awful, that much I agree with. We give maybe 25 dollars of store credit for games that released that same day at $60.
Buuuuut, when you come in with a soda-covered PS2, a couple grimy rattling controllers, and a handful of garbage shovelware games, don't throw a fit when we don't offer you much money for them.
Know why we offer you nothing for them? Because WE DON'T WANT THEM EITHER. The majority of your games are old crap that everyone else already owns, and so we just don't need it. We have to 'accept' the trades, but the offers on the unwanted things drop to such low amounts that we people with half a brain realize they can make more on Ebay and leave. Then we don't have yet another pile of old Madden games on our shelves, and you make a little more actual money instead of our crappy store credit rates. Everyone wins.
This terrible company stays in business because of people who say "These trade in rates suck, but it's better than nothing" and then trade in anyway! Just stop trading in there! This company makes all of its money on reselling your used garbage for inflated prices, and makes almost nothing selling new products. So just stop trading in, stop buying used, and shop the many alternatives instead. I may work for Gamestop, but I'd still love to see them stop making so much damn money.
DEATH TO GAMESTOP....
I got majors issues with this gestapo company.
This is a customer complaint i sent to them on monday 2/23/09 online.
I don't know if this is even going to be even read or if anyone is even going to care...
But i have to say that i have had the worst experience ever with Gamestop.
In the past i've always thought of Gamestop as a great place to find games, great
Professional clerks that treat customers with respect.
What happened to me this weekend with not just 1 Gamespots but a total of 4 Gamestops
that gave me nothing but grief, stress and aggravation.
On Sat Feb 21 i went to a Gamestop located in Brooklyn Ny
GameStop #6310
Prospect Park North
527 Fifth Avenue
Brooklyn NY, 11215
There i spent $225.00 on used Xbox 360, Wii games and one new Wii game, I decided to get one of the Gamestop edge cards, i was told I'll get a magazine of game informer which I never received from the clerk that was helping me out. When I get home none of the games had any booklets, I was never even informed that any of the games have booklets, one of the games didn't even work and I didn't even get the game informer magazine.
I called the store back to let them know of the several mistakes and spoke to a clerk which just laughed off the mistakes that were made and passed off the phone to another clerk, which i found to be very rude and very unprofessional. I tell the 2nd clerk about mistakes that were made with games that had no booklets, he stated that its not there policy to sell games with the books ( how do you expect me to play this game if I don't have the book? and no I don't to go online that’s what the game booklet is for.. ) I tell him about the magazine he states there is none in stock ( then why promise me a magazine if you have non in stock and say nothing about it when i paid $225 for everything ) I tell him one of the games do not work and why would they even sell a game that doesn't work, he states it's not policy to check every game, if the game doesn't work bring it back for a exchange ( are you kidding me?! how could you sell something defective and not care? )
I decided that I'll call one of the other stores in the area because I just got too fed up dealing with very unprofessional people. So I called another Gamestop location about acquiring game booklets and exchanging the defective game. I was told that i could come by and get some booklets and exchange the game I wanted because they have it in stock and will be put on hold for me.
GameStop #1363
Broadway and 33rd
1282 BROADWAY
New York NY, 10001 US
I get to that location later on that evening I speak to a clerk about getting some booklets and exchanging the defective game. The clerk tells me that the defective game I want to exchange for is not in stock ( Are you f...ing kidding me? ) I explain to the clerk that I was told that I could come by and exchange the game and that it would be put on hold. They apologized and stated that it's not there policy to hold games for customers ( then why promise me you would ?! ) I decided that I wanted to exchange one of the games I had without a booklet for a new one which was sealed and had a booklet. They do the exchange for me and tell me that I could go to the other Gamestop which is located across the street in the Manhattan Mall if I wanted more booklets for the games I purchased.
GameStop #6399
Manhattan Mall
100 West 33rd Street
New York NY, 10001 US
I get to the other Gamestop at the Manhattan Mall and ask for some booklets, I'm told that again it's not there policy to give the booklets with the games. I tell them that I was told by the other Gamestop that is across the street that i can go and get booklets for some games, they once again apologized and stated it's not there policy to give the booklets to the games. ( Once again )
I get home that evening to find out that the game I exchanged for the new one was not even right game I wanted, i got the WRONG GAME from the clerk..... I was beyond furious by this time.
GameStop #1052
Court Street
116 Court Street
Brooklyn NY, 11201 US
Sunday morning I call the Gamestop on Court St. Brooklyn Ny. ask them if they have the correct new game that I originally wanted. They stated yes we do, its in stock. I'll also asked to see if they have another used game I wanted which they stated yes they do it's in stock ( I even checked the website which showed it in stock )
I get there sunday at noon to do the exchanges for both games, as I leave the store to get on the bus to Ikea, I look in the bag, open up the used game to notice that the clerk never put the game in the case, by now I am beyond furious, I'm irate.....
I'll call the store explain to them what just happened they stated that the game is not in stock ( then why for the f...k would you tell me its in stock and have the game on display in the used section ) they once again apologized profusely and by this time i'm sick of hearing the same old garbage...
Later on that evening I went back to that location and once again they apologized, I did a exchange for another used game and thought ( wow how much more mistakes can Gamestop make )
When I get home i open up the case to the game I just got and notice once again another error and mistake by Gamestop..... The clerk which apologized profusely and stated that they pride themselves in being the best Gamestop out here, put the wrong game in the case....
I want to end this by saying that this whole experience as been the worst ever that i've had, I have never had so many error and mistakes in just 48hrs., where do you do your hiring from the circus? crack heads looking for work? mentally challenged people? How could just one person have so many errors and mistakes in 48hrs. in 4 different locations?
Gamestop really needs to do better hiring and training because the clerks you have working in these locations have no idea what customer service really means.
I will never shop at Gamestop again and I will tell friends of mine to never shop there either.
" Power to the Players " - Yeah right, bullshit!
Signed...
anonymous
I go to EB games, not GameStop. I hate how they always try to scam customers with their old, but sold as new games. I fell for it once before. When I opened the game case, there were tons of scratches on the disc. I went back the next day to complain to the manager, and the manager was just as bad as his employees. He made some stupid excuse that those were 'burn marks' from the game factory and not their fault. I told him I know that EB games employee were allowed to take new games home to play, and bring it back to be resold as "new". The manager was like no EB games would never allow their employees to do that. He just kept talking shit, and he didnt allow for a refund, because I opened the game. How the hell are we suppose to check for any damages to the game if we can't open the case? The manager also said that the reason that they put display cases was to prevent theft...Ya, I agree it does prevent theft, but dont mix it up with the NEW games that the customer paid the price for (a totally separate case here), jeez. I hate how EB games make up some phony excuses to cover up their shady acts. My definition of a NEW game = Factory sealed, EB's definition of a NEW game = used game but still working.
I just bought fable 2 from game stop, and you know what? They just took a game demo CD and glued on a fable 2 cover onto the CD and then sold it to me for 56$ I find this retarded that they will sell me a demo of a completely different game. Ya it was used, but they really is no reason to sell me a fake game disk. Game Stop really just wants money. Excuse me wheal I go and complain now, and not get my money back.
Street Fighter 4 Collector's Edition
1.) Less than 30 minutes after I completed my transaction, a GameStop representative called me to confirm this order. Mumbling something about an address verification for the credit card that was used for this transaction.
2.) Furthermore, why was I NOT NOTIFIED at the "time" that I verified my address, that THIS ITEM HAD BEEN D-LISTED? I mean seriously, would it have been too proactive to have even considered adjusting your website to mention "OUT OF STOCK" ..or "D-LISTED" instead of processing a transaction for an item that WAS NEVER INTENDED TO SHIP?
3.) Lastly, NOT ONLY ARE YOU "NOW" HOLDING MY $95.73 ..hostage (you are literally borrowing it for 3-5 business days), but, you have the audacity to attempt to charge me $10.14 for some sort of processing fee. Are you kidding me?
----------------
----------------
To add insult to injury, I received a "canned" response from GameStop. That implied that somehow "my financial institution" was to blame for the incurred charges to my credit card.
NO APOLOGIES for taking my cash for an item that they KNEW they didn't have in stock, and that they NEVER INTENDED to ship.
AND! Had my son not logged into our GameStop account, and NOTICED that the order had been CANCELLED, we would still be sitting here twiddling our thumbs, wondering where the shipment was ..as GameStop never even bothered to notify us.
----------------
----------------
From: Gamestop Customer Service [mailto:help@gamestop.com]
Sent: Sunday, March 22, 2009 10:17 AM
To: Lisa A. Johnson
Subject: RE: Your GameStop.com Order Confirmation - 4090319104247522 (KMM4687116I15977L0KM)
Dear Customer,
Thank you for contacting us.
In response to your request we have cancelled your order # 4090319104247522.
As a reminder, your payment method was never charged for the canceled items. Any related authorization hold on your credit or debit card account will be released in accordance with your financial institution holds policy. Please contact your financial institution for more information. For Barnes & Noble orders, refunds are processed within 3-5 business days. If your order was placed with a GameStop gift card or Edge Card, please note that any related authorization hold on the card should fall off within 3-5 business days.
Also, please feel free to check out our new website features for your future cancellation needs as we are now offering customer self-service options, like canceling your own order/items.
We value your business and hope to see you again soon!
Best regards,
John Customer Service Agent
----------------
----------------
SERIOUSLY ..WHAT GIVES HERE? Why is the consumers responsibility to LOAN MONEY to GameStop? I have to admit, this is a clever approach to floating cash flow .........but, at what expense?
ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED!
I log on to the useless Lamestop website to find a particular game, i find out that the game is located at a lamestop store near my job.
I go to the lamestop around my job, which i knew i was wasting my time because they are nothing but a bunch of incompetent useless piece's of shit.
I swear i think the people that they hire are some of the worst customer service clerks that ever existed, if you hate your job so much and hate being there PLEEAAASSEEEE FUCKING QUIT, FIND ANOTHER SHIT HOLE PLACE TO WORK AT, THE MILITARY IS ALWAYS HIRING IDIOTS LIKE YOU!!!!!!
Ok.....
So i get to the store and ask if they have the game in stock, numbnuts clerk number 1 tells me all confidently "Oh no that game doesn't exist, it's never existed for the Ps2"
In the back of my mind i'm like "wow how fucking stupid can you be?"
I tell him calmly "yes it does exist, it came out a few yrs ago, just check please"
He continues pressing the key board acting like he's doing a job which i know he isn't, the next clerk next to him which is even more stupid then numnuts number 1 decides to help out and states "Ummm no i don't think it exists"
I calmly say "yes it does, please check again" So numnuts number 2 looks deeper into the system and finds out that oh it does exist but tells me that they don't have the game. At this point i'm like come on you can't be this fucking lazy, i'm like "Dude i just checked your online site it states that you have in stock no more then 10 mins ago, i doubt anybody is even looking for this old shit"
They had the balls to look me in the face and say "oh our website isn't always correct and sometimes it's not up to date"
I just laugh it off and as i walk over to one of the display i just bring it down with down with me as i leave the store, used Ps2 games all over the place..
Fuck you Lamestop.... hahaha
I've been working at GameStop for quite some time now......
I.hate.it.
I hate how customers assume that everyone who works there are dedicated to video games. I don't give a flying fuck what an AC adapter does, which game is better, and how much trade-in value a pile of useless games cost. Go shove 'em up you ass for all I fuckin care, the ONLY fuckin reason why I work there is because they're my bread and butter for now, with this horrible economy, I'm lucky working at some lame ass game store. Other than that......I could care less of a shit for games.
Go shove all those video games up in your rectum and get a REAL gf. Those bitches in the games aren't real and will not give you head.
Gamestop is also one of the companies who partner with a scam company called Reservation Rewards. After you purchase something at Gamestop they re-direct you to this company who receives ALL of your information...including credit card info. Months later you find a charge on your account from Reservation Rewards for anywhere from $9.00- $12.00. I contacted the local Sheriff's Dept. who told me they are aware of the scam. The Sheriff's Dept told me to call my bank, report the false charge, and get my card # changed. But, they say, you need a police complaint # to give to your bank, or this company has the ability to use your NEW Credit or debit card #! Also, complain to the FTC. I asked gamestop to remove any and ALL information they have about me...their response: "Our system does not allow us to do that." I am urging anyone and everyone who reads my blogs to boycott Gamestop.
Wow, to everyone that posted complaints about the policies and practices, you are pathetic! You obviously know nothing about business or running a successful business. The policies are in place because everyone (especially the negative posters here!) just want to take advantage of the system and get something/everything for free. Sure quality and personnel vary from store to store but the return policies at game stop are much better than any other retail chain.
I think its interesting how Game Stop is lumped in with Wal-Mart and other stores and that is bad for some reason. Everyone loves to hate Wal-Mart, but 90% of the people shop there anyway. I live in a small town in Maine and there was nearly a riot at a town meeting over Wal-Mart moving into the area. The interesting thing was that most of the people at the meeting I have seen at the Wal-Mart 30 min away so they enjoy the savings, but only at a distance. I'm guessing that most of the people that complain about Game Stop but shop there anyway enjoy the fact that there is a place were they can find the games they want and the price is not as bad as it seems.
And finally, the Edge Card. Its a steal if you are a regular shopper. After completing $150 in purchases or trades the card and magazine have been paid for and its all bonus... how is that a rip off? I probably spent $500 in used games last year cause I always wait for them used so its saved me a lot of money. Sure the guys at the local stores love it when I occasionally reserve something, but they know I'm a got gonna reserve most often and dont bug me.
i hate the way game stop check their games they should put it in the game system and try it i got a used game from their website and when i got it the game was covered in this white s*** it looked like a drug i'm just pissed off at them right now then th degum cover looks like my cat scratched and the d*** game did not work it had so many scraches on it i could not even countem i'm not giving them buseiness iuntil i get my $24 dollars back
to add on to the other one about the game with whit crap on it i have alot more options to buy games from and tradem playen trade they put the games in the consoles and try it its only local but who cares its better than game stop a hole lot BETTER TRUST ME
i bought bully online the one with the white shit the game came in a whole different pacage than what i see in k-mart it was a dvd case and it looked like crap the case dos not even close it does not load in my wii the thing is i wish gamesstop will send me a new game which they wont i live in N.C and i whent to a game stop in the mall to return 8 games 2 clerks were their one of them took the games and was looking at them then i was talking to him when the other one comes out of now where and interupts my conversation but the store had no covers on about 32 psp games and some stuff on almost all used games the controllers where oily i just whant a decent bully game
"(with their EXPENSIVE & WORTHLESS warranty program)"
LIE Best Buy's warranty program is the best warranty program ive ever used. I had a 360 for quite some time now, it was one of the first to come out so it was prone to get the RROD, however i took care of it and it never got the RROD. However one day the DVD laser would no longer read disc i was out of an xbox. Since microsoft only cover RROD ( which i didnt have ;D) i had to use my Best buy warranty. It took less than 10 mintes to get a new X-Box. Quite litterally i walked in the store, went to customer service, showed my problem, and showed them. Then they took a 360 of the shelve and gave it to me. Best Buy is the BEST when it come to customer service
you all can blow me... gamestop.
I am a 13 year old, and a game freak i can admit that. I just found out that gamestop was just a scam. I got this game 007 quantum solace and it was really fun. The online play for the game sucked badly but the story part was good. I beat it in two days so i got pissed off. I went to gamestop with my mom to see if i can make an exchange for a different game. They said something about a copy right thing i don't really know i wasn't listening, so any way I couldn't take the game back. When i purchased the game it was on the USED section not NEW, they charged my mom the price of a new game when when my mom bought it i thought it was USED. When i figured out that i cant return it i asked if i could put it in as used games and get some money out of it. My mom could of bought a new game with some of her money and the money i got from turning in the game in used. My mom bought the game for $33.95 and they said i would get $8.00. WHAT THE FUCK? i got the game 2 days before and i would get 8 bucks? my mom said she didn't want to buy a new game. So i left the store without a new game and with that damn game i didn't want. i got good grades in school and for a reward i got ripped off by gamestop (if my grammer sucks what am i going to do im 13)
Talk about rip off "oh thank you for giving us one of your games here is some money that you can get jack shit with" What game can you get with 8 bucks?
I've been working at Gamestop for a year and a half now. I'm an SGA (entry level manager) and I can vouch that 95% of what I've read here is true. Everything about policy and sales and how we shove shit down peoples' throats that they never wanted in the first place is all true. I hate the company and I hate how they treat us employees. We don't WANT to be this way to the customers. We HAVE to be this way. Every day I go to work I am worried that if I don't make the company enough money I will lose my job. I'm seeking employment elsewhere but the economy is horrible right now and I live in a small town outside of large city in NC and don't have many places to apply.
I'm also very unhappy with my management. The loss prevention department is run with terrorism and scare tactics. Yes, people steal from Gamestop often. It's a video game store! I just don't understand why us employees have to go through accusatory interrogations when a few games go missing! I recently got threatened with being arrested or blacklisted from other retailers by my LP manager (Though he chose his words carefully as to avoid actually accusing me. The company is very sly with their loopholes.). I'm getting out of this place soon and I'm not looking back.
So please, do not give the employees crap. Don't make a scene and yell at them because they can't let you return your 2 month old PS3 that you got bored of. Don't get upset that you can't trade a used Madden '05 for a Madden '08 "even swap." We don't make the rules! We have a little program called "Sherlock" that tracks every button we press in those registers. If we give out one discount that the company disagrees with, we will be investigated and possibly hit with internal theft by some corporate bullshit loophole that allows them to prosecute.
Also, if you hate the stupid phone greeting ("Thank you for calling Gamestop where we buy and sell used games. This is _____ speaking, how may I help you?") that we have to recite with every call, we do too. If we don't recite that and if we don't mention the "circle of life" to every customer, we get written up. We have mystery shoppers and mystery callers that hunt us down and track our mistakes. We are always being watched and tracked.
The circle of life is a list of 5 things we must mention to every customer. If you are a Mexican mother buying a $5 used game for your 6 year old son and don't speak any English, I still have to ask you if you want to reserve Prototype. The company doesn't care that I know it's not in your interest.
Oh yeah, and customers suck:
-We had a woman try to return a PS3 because it didn't float like in the commercial.
-No, we don't have Battletoads. Please come up with a better meme.
-No, we don't have any more Wii Fits... Yes, I am sure... No, I will not check... Because you are the 40th fucking person to ask me today...
-No, you can't buy GTA: San Andreas without an id. I realize that you are a mature 14 year old but unfortunately it doesn't matter that you've already played the game at your friend's house. You still need your mother.
And here's something I love:
Me: (in cheery voice) "Hi, welcome to Gamestop! Is there anything I can help you with?"
Customer: "You're really looking to make a sale!"
Fuck you. Fuck this job.
my ps3 was stolen and immediately i called gamestop to see if someone had traded in a ps3 to the store and they said someone had. i asked them to hold it and not do anything with the system because it could be mine, and i would check in the morning. when i went into gamestop to see if it was mine they had already sold 1 of my controllers and told me i would have to contact corrupt to get it back. after i got the police involved i was able to get my ps3 back because my name was still on the hard drive. but it has been since January of 2009 and i have yet to get back 1 of the controllers.
the person who stole it was also arrested but i have not gone to court yet. how long does it take to get stolen property back? i called corporate and they would not help. they just threw me into loops saying that it was stolen property and the cops would have to find it.
gamestop is shady in my opinion and i dont think i'm ever going to get my 3rd ps3 controller back.. it was a dual shock
I'm also an employee of Gamestop and let me say that we are loaded with a crapfull of work everyday that must get done or else you're in trouble. For my position and my title it isn't worth the pay. Furthermore the way the company pays us on that stupid comdata card is a ripoff as I'm sure Gamestop is in on that card and they get a cut from the ATM withdrawls you make. Guess that's why nobody takes that card and it has no Visa or Mastercard logo. Yes it is true you get pressured to sell subscriptions and game reserves as if you job depended on it. The raises suck as I know an employee that didn't even get 15 cents for all the work he or she did and subs and reserves they get and the money they make for the company. Some cusomers are nice most are rude jerk-offs but either way they cut into my workload since I'm almost always alone by myself as I have a dozen customers and a long list of other things to work on including ALL the UPS packages he brings us. Bottom line Gamestop is a cheap company that upsells and rips off customers and overworks and underpays employees. If it wasn't for this economy I would've left a long time ago I only hope they would fire me so I can collect unemployment.
Fuck Gamestop they underpay and overwork their employees, they makes us shove new reserves and subscriptions down peoples throats, they pay us on a phony wanna be debit card that most businesses don't except because it doesn't have a visa or mc logo and I'm sure Gamestop gets thier cut from every ATM withdrawl, we have a workload of work everyday that also includes every UPS package we get daly, that we can't finish beacuse of too many customers, too little time. Fuck Gamestop I hope they fire me so I can collect unemployment.
I tend to agree with basically all of these posts. I worked for gamestop as an assistant manager for about 8 months and today was actually my last day. I can say that we are definitely forced to get res's and subs as well as game play guarantee's (gpg's) because they are 100% profit. Employees are most definitely overworked and underpaid. Employees are definitely stuck dealing with assholes and morons all day as well.
The big reason I came on here today is to explain what happened to me from this "great" company today. I recently decided to leave Charlotte, NC to move closer to my family and put in my 30 days notice about a week ago. Rather than let me work my last few weeks, my district manager called me today and told me to just make my notice effective today. I said fine and left.
The reason for this is because I reported a person for trading in stolen games to an employee at a nearby retailer that shops at my previous store all the time. They basically stole two weeks of my pay away from me for doing the right thing. The store I worked at was literally in the ghetto and after working there for the past 6 months, I grew more than tired of trashy mother fuckers constantly trying to trade in stolen goods. I think the trade in policy is great for them but if you saw all the stolen games/systems that come in the door of that place you'd be sick. I firmly believe that thieves are about as low as it gets in society and finally got to the point where I had to do something and was chewed out on the phone for doing so about two weeks ago because of it.
I always bought my games at gamestop and even did so at other locations while I worked there but because of this blatant unprofessionalism, I've decided to stop shopping there all together. I'll purchase my new games either online or at best buy and if I choose to by games on drop dates I'll do it at a mom n pop store instead. I will have to buy some more things there in the near future though as I will be going back to my previous store this week to cancel ALL of my reserves and get the money back, which is 100's of dollars by the way.
My son took a brand new playstation 3 with 15 games to one of our local Gamestop stores and traded it for an XBOX 360. He gave Gamestop $700 worth of games and console equiptment and received $181.89 For it. This is really not the problem I have. Although, to give that much to a company and literally get peanuts back is ridiculous. My problem is, we are only in July and I have had to visit every store in my local area because the original Xbox he received got the red ring of death less than a month after he got it. He is now on his 8th console within a three month span. All for the same problem. This company obviously does nothing to ensure the consules they're giving to their customers are in working condition. I have been ripped off! I have contacted Gamestop via email on 04/25/09 with my conserns and explained what was happening. I never received a response from anyone. This morning I called the customer service number, because he I am again with the red ring of death, and a representative gave me the number to the District Manager, Mr. Rodriguez. He is out of the office until July 31st. His voice mail gives a number for a Jay Hernandez. I called that number. It goes to a fax machine. Obviously, customer satisfaction and concerns is not a priority for this company. I've sent emails which have been ignored, Managers leave for a month at a time, and Managers that are to be filling in, send calls to fax, so they don't have to deal with them.
If you are a Gamestop employee and hate their cruel business tactics yet love games and selling them. Keep your job at Gamestop...just change how they can treat us by unionizing. IT IS POSSIBLE!!!! www.awppw.com can help. Click on link to join. Trust me. They can't fire us all and the brown-nosers will become corporate scabs.
GAMESTOP IS THE WORST COMPANY!!!
GamerDoc is the solution. We do things differently. We believe in customer service.
Check us out at www.egamerdoc.com
We're on facebook
GamerDoc
484 472 8365
1001 Baltimore Pike Suite 3
Springfield, PA 19064
We repair systems too
I am a "Senior Game Adviser" which means that I get to have keys to the store. Still part time though. I have to work for them because I can't get work anywhere else. At my store we all feel like crap when we do trades for people they come in with a stack of 50+ PS2 games and we give them $30. They spent well over $300 for all of them. It's really not fair at all. We try to tell the customers that yes we are ripping you off. You should just sell the games to your friends or on ebay. You will get a lot more money.
When our DM comes in we have to push reserves like this is this is going to be the best game of the year. No other game will top this game. You have to get it the first day it comes. We whisper to the customer that they don't need to do it. But them our DM comes over and start to beg ... yes BEG for the reserve. None of use at our store care bout their "numbers" (reserve and subscription %). We do enough so the DM can't hound us.
To all the people that read this as a real person I am sorry for how we have to hound you and ask you the same mindless questions over and over again. I know that a lot of people at other gamestop's think that this job is the best thing ever and they try really hard to be that "perfect" employee. But mostly you will run into the employee who really only work there for a discount (which is only 15% and sucks cuz we cant combine it with anything that's on sale) or work there for a paycheck. We hate bothering you guys so much. We all feel like crap when we do. We just don't wanna lose our jobs. Believe me when I say that a lot of GS employees hate doing what we have to do to you guys.
Sorry for the rambling as well. I just really really hate this job esp after seeing how they make managers work 50+ hours and cut everyone else's hours because they aren't making enough money. I guess $3 billion in profit is bad.
I worked at Gamestop for close to three years. When I started there I was a mere game advisor. While the work sucked, the other employees were really cool. They made it fun to work there and even when the stupid district manager walked in it was still a moderately fun place to work. The manager there was really cool and understood why not always having the best numbers. Numbers are how many subscriptions and preorders we sold.
The manager also would call out the DM on crap. Like how the DM would yell at all of us to sell more madden preorders. The manager would point out that it makes it hard to convince repeat customers when every year the stores have more than enough copies and reserving it is a complete waste of time. Point is, our manager was a cool guy who wasn't fooling himself and knew the company he worked for sucked and ripped people off.
Then I was promoted and moved to another store, this is when all the problems started. I had a new store manager and a new DM. Unlike my old manager, both the store manager and the DM were totally unreasonable and did everything by the book even when it wasn't the logical thing to do. For example, one night a customer came in during a special trade in deal. The guy became very frustrated because he wanted more than what was coming to him. After spending about 40 minutes with this guy I had to take a deep breath and try again but he got mad and stormed out.
The next day my manager asked me what happened and I told him. He said that the customer called our DM and that she said to write me up and give me a first and finale. I told my manager that I hadn't yelled and sweared at the guy(this is what i was accused of) and to ask the other employee who was working with me. he said he did and the other employee also said I did no such thing. I told him to check the security tape and he did, and even admitted himself that he saw nothing like that on the security camera but that the DM said to write me up and his hands were tied.
I can tell you that was total BS because at my old store a DM wanted me to be written up for something that didnt happen and my manager stood up for me. Point of the story is that there are very few rules in place to protect employees from customers who are simply upset for not getting what they want. If you ever want someone to lose their job at a GS, just call the DM and chances are they will be gone.
Another idiotic system put into place in 2007 was the new customer survey system. basically customers will randomly get an automated call asking if they enjoyed their shopping experience. If even ONE no is given, the entire store is written up, no questions asked. This means out of 50 calls, if a store gets 49 yeses and one no, they are all in trouble. Same goes for the online surveys which are just as one sided.
Gamestop treats its employees like crap. It's a kill or be killed cuthroat company where everyone passes the buck in order to save their own ass. There's no defending yourself and nothing you can do if a customer has a problem, be it legitimate or otherwise. I just had to vent a bit, this happened over a year ago but I'm still amazed at how bad of a company Gamestop is.
I have been working at a Gamestop for over 3 years. Although it is really annoying having to push people to reserve games and purchase a subscription, I like to think that I always try and steer people in the right direction. I flat out tell people whether or not it would actually be worth the money for them to buy a card. I mean, if they come in once a week and buy tons of games, I'm going to tell them about the card. And sure, the magazine is a bit too lax on reviews, but the previews are nice to read sometimes, and I don't mind getting a magazing subscription for $14.99 since that's pretty cheap. Reserving games is not always a rip-off, especially if people want to pay off a game little by little. I do ask people if they'd like to reserve anything, and maybe suggest a few titles I'm looking forward to. But if they say no, I'm not going to take it any further. As far as I am concerned, people who really want to reserve a game will do it without someone prompting them at the register. And by the way, that Comdata card sucks! I had to have it because I didn't have a checking account. Today I tried to use the card, which said I had money on it. I tried to withdraw it, and then it changes and says i only have $6.00 left! That company is such a scam.
i actually didn't take the time to read every single comment in here....so forgive me if i repeat.
but i agree that gamestop is a terrible "business" (used as a loose a term as possible). i have been working there to this date one year an i do not like it one bit, i never wanted the job but i need ed one badly so i unfortunatly took it. i have seen numerous times people getting ripped off by gamestops trade ins and random "sales". first off the employment side of it is that it just sucks. i cant get a day where at least 1 person bitches at me for 80 mins strait about how they should have this this and this done cause they frequently shop hear and this is the "first time they have been mistreated at gamestop". sorry thats bs...i take pride in my job regardless if i despise it or not. 2) the pay is terrible, i have been told even by my district manager that im one of the best game associate that he has seen, yet my co worker who sits on there butt all day got the exact same raise as i did...so the better you work doesn't mean anything anymore? ok gamestop...middle finger up to you too. 3) i have literally been under paid for the work i have done. i have been doing managers jobs while they sit on there butts (yea i cant swear like i want to so back off) and have there break...i cant even get into half the computer stuff that they can get into and they want me doing things that THEY are suppose to be doing. i also have been getting underpaid cause my gamestop is refusing to hire anyone else. im the only GA as its stands now. with 3 3rd keys...an ASM and a SM...i have been working almost everyday. this makes it so i don't even get time and a half for the one or 2 days a year that we MIGHT be able to get time and a half. thats another thing...why wont gamestop pay time and a half, they don't give the employees good pay...the people a fair amount of money for trade ins and they over price the used games...yet...our work place is lacking supply and stuff...well where the hell is all that money going. err, anyways, 4)gamestops just sucks. k? case closed, its a fail company and idk how they are still around.
Can all over you do me a favor? Can you all read what follows and write to Gamestop on my behalf in reference to inquiry KMM5211805I15977L0KM?
http://www.gamestop.com/gs/help/TechnicalProblem.aspx
During Christmas of this last year my wife purchased a refurbished XBOX 360 for me. I was very excited to receive the 360 but as a professional salesman, I sell motorcycles and power sports equipment, I was surprised that the refurbished system not only didn’t come with a hard drive but that a salesman didn’t explain that to my wife so that she could purchase it, which she would have happily done. Instead I had to wait almost 3 weeks to finally be able to purchase a hard drive in my local store since it took them that long to get one in stock.
Three months later we moved into a different house and we bought a router so I decided to try and use the XBOX Live service. As it turns out, the 360 that was sold to me had been previously banned from XBOX Live and I couldn’t connect. I explained this to your store manager and after a week of talking back and forth with her she finally agreed that I was entitled to swapping out the 360.
Now, my original 360 was a wireless unit, the one they tried to give me in return was a wired unit, so after a bit more persuasion I finally got it all straightened out. A month later that one stops working. I sat down one night, turned it on, all the fans started up and then I got a red ring. I tried to get it to work properly a couple times then called the store back and spoke with the manager. She told me she needed to talk to corporate and she would get back to me. 10 days later I called back and she said to bring it up and swap it out again. I did and brought the THIRD system home.
It worked for 2 days. 2 DAYS. This one will turn on and I would say a quarter of the time it will start up properly and I start playing a game. After about 10 minutes the colors wash out in red and green and then it freezes. The other 75% of the time it starts up and I can hear all the sounds but there is no picture. I had assumed at first it must be my t.v. so I hooked up my PS3 and it worked just fine. Then I thought it must be the cable that runs from the 360 to my t.v. so I borrowed my friend’s and I had the same issue, indicating that it must be the system.
This evening when I tried to call the store it was too late and they were closed so I called the customer service number and explained my problem, the answer I was given was that there was nothing that could be done, I would have to take it up with the store, keep exchanging my system and keep purchasing warranties. When I explained that this is the third time and that this was unacceptable I was given a district manager’s number, 724-542-2475, and told his name was Bill, I could speak with him.
I called the number and received an automated message, “This Voicemail box is full, please try again later.”
I am also an employee of GameStop, and I have been for quite some time.
Let me first start of by saying I work in the #1 District in the world, along with one of the top stores.
I have found that the biggest problem most of these customers have is what they expect when they walk into the store that results in their poor attitudes.
Let's say a guy walks in with four games, all of which are older sport titles ('05-07). We as employees scan in these titles (please note we do not make up these prices. The system actually determines the cost based on Supply and Demand - Go Figure). I in return tell the customer that he is only receiving $10 for these titles.
Now in the classic situation they became very angry and start ranting that they paid 5x times that four years ago. Well here's what I have to say: "If you dont like it...get the fuck out. We havent sold any of these shitty ancient sports titles in ages, so why would you expect to get a good payoff when we probably wont see a penny of profit from these games?"
People need to start using their heads. We are a business. We expect income. Welcome to The Economy my friends. Pretty crazy right!?
THE EDGE CARD!
For those of you ignorant enough to believe the Edge Card is of absolutely no help please kindly rid yourself from this world.
The Edge Card Takes of 10% of all used titles and accessories, along with a free Subscription with Game Informer (those idiots who said they hardly ever give bad reviews please actually read an article).
For Example, if you decide to buy a used game at the price of $54.99, your edge card will effectively take off $5.49 of the price. Sure, I agree at first it doesn't seem like much. IT IS NOT AN IMMEDIATE PAY OFF! This card is for those people who come in day after day by game after game. It will save you hundreds of precious dollars if used correctly by the appropriate people. So please, Think about things before you argue against them.
Also, some of you bitch that used games are only $5 cheaper than the new copy. First off, you just saved $5. Second off, with used games you have a 7 day full money back guarantee, and a 30 day replacement warranty. With new games once its opened your out of luck. So let me get this straight. You can buy a used copy...save $5+...and if you dont like it you can return it within 7 days...and you guys are bitching because its not cheaper!? LOL!!!!!!!!
Oh and as for employees trying to screw you. Grow up children. There is no meeting at the end of everyday that awards us for how many customers we make unhappy, or how much money we screw them out of. We are expected to have perfect crash drawers that are not under OR OVER any specific amount of $. So please...shh...
Please realize that I am not saying Gamestop is a perfect business. We are not by a long shot. There are many games that I think we do not give enough for. But where I work we are honest. We do not base our hours solely off numbers, but instead how well we treat our customers. We will tell you not to reserve something if we all agree it is a bad title. We will tell you if the Subscription (Edge Card) is actually worth a purchase depending on how often we see you in the store.
I cant speak for every other gamestop. That is not my job. But before you come into my store pointing fingers expecting to be screwed..please..just avoid us all together then. We are only doing our jobs, just as you do yours. Every business makes a profit somehow, and if you think it is all honest ...please...take a better look. Like I said before...Welcome to the Economy...
It is your fault you continue to come to our store if you think you can find better elsewhere (which you cant sorry). If you treat the employees with some respect (which we rarely see) I can guarantee you that they will find some way to make sure you walk out with the best deal possible.
-Night
Gamestop is indeed shady. I know people who've worked their, and i've read your posts, and i'm not buying from them anymore. I used to, but I'm fed up with their policy. They treat their workers like human refuse, expendable at a moments notice. They force the poor souls to throw crap at us and the ever so "useful" edge card. Way to take off sales tax, plus 2 percent. The magazine they dish out with the piece of plastic is practically free advertising as well. They've also screwed the developers of games over as well. I feel horrible for buying a used copy of halo 1, 2 and 3. Bungie, who has worked for over a decade now on the series, recieves nothing for this. Used sales are a gimmick to remove the "middle man" or developer from the business loop. The people who create the entertainment for us should be treated better than this, especially if most of their sales come used, which is very much the case for the smaller developers. I'm going somewhere else now, i don't want the GA's to have to be forced into throwin' crap at me, and i don't want to feed the corporate beast that is gamestop.
I work at gamestop (as an SGA) as well (albeit not for much longer). over the last two months I have begun recieving all sorts of complaints from my SM for really frivilous crap, like when I close and he opens the next morning and there's a few cases out of place, he labels it as "THE WHOLE STORE LOOKED AWFUL". It's not my fault that they have me closing ALONE three nights out of the week. I'm by myself in the store in a small, out of the way strip mall for hours every other night, dealing with a reasonable amount of business for the size of our store. I'm not going to get everything looking clean and shiny unless I'm in here past my shift. Additionally, I was written up for failing to get enough subscriptions and reservations, and had to sit through the retarded "circle of business" talk over and over again. So, jumping ahead a month and a half, I have shown VAST improvement, started living up to expectations, getting subs and res, and working my ass off to make sure that the store was clean (I even vacuumed!) and hung around sometimes fifteen minutes after my shift had ended to make sure that everything was all hunky dory.
Last Tuesday I received my final warning for not doing any of the shit I just mentioned. No, seriously. I'm on camera doing it, and my boss had the audacity to tell me that I didn't. He MADE me sign my final warning, lest he fire me on the spot. I can't afford to be unemployed right now, I have hospital bills and tuition to pay, and no one in my area is really hiring. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be fired within the next month (or even week) for just doing my job.
To top it off, he's been at this shit for years now. The summer of last year, he spent over half of it on vacation, leaving his inexperienced ASM and his temporary SGA to run the entire store. And I've been working there for over a year now, and it hasn't really changed. And the DM isn't going to do anything about it, they don't give a damn or really know anything about the games they push.
Don't harass the Gamestop employees, they don't deserve it.
Except the manager.
Well, as I can clearly see the amount of effort put forth into dissuading people from being affiliated with Gamestop, I work as a GA at my Gamestop in St. Petersburg, FLA. And what do I have to say about my Gamestop experience?? I fucking LOVE it. I see some people saying "The manager got on my case because just a few things were out of place and yada yada yada" yeah well, it's you JOB. You know, like work, something you shouldn't slack off in. Now, there is obviously a line that can be crossed, I'm not going to oppose to that. And I have yet to run into my DM but my Store Manager and ASM are awesome, I love them. I'm also currently working at a Wendy's as well, and whenever I have to go to Wendy's in my mind I go "ugh.... work" but when I have to go to Gamestop in my mind I go "YeS!!! I get to work!" Why?? Because I just looove working there. There's only a couple things that I've found tedious. When our store got hit with about 450 price changes one day, and then 650 the next. Yeah that was a pain, but like I said, it's work. Sometimes there aren't going to be things you don't like to do, but you have to do it. And people say it's a rip that when you buy a game for 50$ and only get 15-20$ at best in trade-in value. Yeah well, that's business. Point and case. There's no going around it. It costs a Wendy's restaurant about all of 75 cents - 95 cents to make a Baconator. And what happens? They sell them for 3.50 or so. It's BUSINESS! That's the world we live in today, face it. Who knows, maybe I'm being naive to the Corporate Gamestop, maybe I lucked out and got 2 kickass managers and a kickass group of co-workers. All in all, I love it. It's my favorite job to date.
Post a Comment