Gamestops website is the bane of online ordering

[MrSparkle]

So i'm trying to place an order on the gamestop website. Mind you this is a fairly large order about 80 used ps2, gamecube, and xbox games. After adding them all into the cart and balking at the price i decide to go through with it as alot of them are priced pretty well. so i hit continue to checkout, this is when it all falls apart. I'm presented with the following error message "The quantity requested exceeds available inventory. You will be shipped a portion of your order now and the balance if more product becomes available." now that makes it sound like its a little hiccup and itll go through anyway. No such luck as it takes me back to the cart. so i say alright ill remove the offending item(s) and proceed to try again. well here's a problem under availability every item is listed as " Usually Ships In 24 Hours". so here i am with 80+ items in the cart needing to remove 1 or 2 most likely to go through with this. So i call customer service, hold for 15 minutes, get someone who says alright run the items by me. So i begin the painstaking process of having this woman check one item at a time to see whats in stock. This is made all the worse by the fact that i have to spell out at least half of the titles. So on average were chugging along getting the status of each item in about 3 minutes time. at around 80 items this will only take 4 HOURS!! so i give up on that route and start removing the items one at a time trying to checkout after each one. down to 1 item and it still isnt going through! so i remove the last item, and add in a single new game. no luck same error. clear the browsers cache, try again. same thing. so i've now emailed a printed copy of this list to their sales help email address. Hopefully this will resolve the problem. Now might i suggest how this could have been avoided. by pointing out which items were holding this order up, its really that simple. At this point im half tempted to say to hell with it and just not go through with it.

Anyone else have gamestop website ordering horror stories?

[j_factor]

Wow. I don't have any horror stories of my own, mainly because I'm deathly afraid of the words "may not include an instruction manual or original box". Years ago, they only said that for old cartridge games, with other systems' games specifying including box and manual.

[MrSparkle]

yea ill be honest that worries me a bit too. Luckily at my office i have this nifty color laser printer and white cardstock paper the combination of which along with empty dvd cases produces some pretty dead on accurate bootleg cases. i received a generated ticket number email from gamestop as soon as i sent the email stating they would resolve the issue within 24-48 hours. so ill keep you guys updated on this one. in the meantime any web developers might want to pitch/sell the idea of making their website not suck to gamestop you just might get a job.

oh btw incase you were wondering i use full res scans from the cover project for all my orphaned games cover needs. http://www.thecoverproject.net/index.php
much easier than trying to track down and buy orphan cases.

[icbrkr]

I bought a whole bunch of Gamecube commons a few years back - about 30 of em from Gamestop. When they showed up, maybe 5 to 8 had the original covers and cases. I was livid - sure maybe the hard to get case I can see but stuff like sports games? I went to the local Gamestop and then allowed me to trade cases with the ones on the shelf.

[JSoup]

I can't say I've every had an issue with GameStops online service. Every time I've used it, it worked fine.


so i've now emailed a printed copy of this list to their sales help email address.

I....what?

[carlcarlson]

I bought a whole bunch of Gamecube commons a few years back - about 30 of em from Gamestop. When they showed up, maybe 5 to 8 had the original covers and cases. I was livid - sure maybe the hard to get case I can see but stuff like sports games? I went to the local Gamestop and then allowed me to trade cases with the ones on the shelf.

Don't they tell you right up front that the games may or may not be complete? What is there to get angry about?

[MrSparkle]

it does state the games may or may not be complete. it may not have in the past i dont know. and in regards to the question above i printed a screen shot of my shopping cart scanned it and emailed that picture of the list of games in my shopping cart to their customer service people so they could check whats in stock and let me know what isn't so i can process this order. i honestly just couldn't stay on the phone with them for 4 hours to do the same thing.

[Trebuken]

I think they have almost always had a disclaimer about manuals and cases. I used to order dozens of carts (SNES/GEN/NES) from them and did have snafus with the online ordering but not to the degree you are talking about. They probably messed up their inventory system with the EB merger and are still working on it.

[MrSparkle]

When was the eb merger i thought that was over a year ago? *googles*

[icbrkr]

Don't they tell you right up front that the games may or may not be complete? What is there to get angry about?

You seriously wouldn't be a little peeved if someone didn't give you the most common games ever without the case? *May* not include manual and case, sure, but you know as well as I do when you walk into any Gamestop there's piles of them in the bargain bin. It was more of a purposely get rid of the stock without cases tactic than anything. Either way, lesson learned, I don't purchase anything off of their website.

[MrSparkle]

yea i just got an offer to buy a 60 gig ps3 which ive been hunting for 300 with cables, controller, 3 games so ill probably just go for that and say to hell with these people.

[DigitalSpace]

I pretty much only use GameStop's site to check what local stores have a game I'm interested in (or in the case of uncommon games, to see if they're available at any GS in the area).

I've been thinking about buying a few of the cheaper Game Boy and GBC games that are still available on the site, but I'm a little concerned about what shape they'll be in, and none of them are really major wants that I'll be kicking myself over when they disappear.

[videogameking26]

I just got my order of rare PS2 platformers & racing titles from their online website, it was about 15 in total, was really shocked when everyone in the big box came in prefect shape really...might be used but from the looks of all the game cases they could of been brand new right out of the wrap, I wouldn't of know a bit..but really just happen to play some of these finally, yes they might not be rare in your neck of the woods but some of the ones I was looking for seem impossible to find in my local area so went the online gamestop route, sure glad I did.

[MrSparkle]

no response as of yet from gamestop.

[Dangerboy]

1. 80 games? I don't think any online store could handle that kind of order.
2. It clearly states that the games may not have box or instructions.
3. It doesn't matter what game it it, common or rare. If it says it may not have instructions or box, it may not have it.
4. If you're wanting a box and manual, you go to the store.

[MrSparkle]

1. 80 games? I don't think any online store could handle that kind of order.
2. It clearly states that the games may not have box or instructions.
3. It doesn't matter what game it it, common or rare. If it says it may not have instructions or box, it may not have it.
4. If you're wanting a box and manual, you go to the store.

the only point really related to my original is the first so ill address that. Why the hell shouldnt it be able to handle 80 games. I can't think of any technical reason. if theres a limit on number of items per checkout they should state it. And finally i removed the items one at a time until there was only 1 and it still wouldnt go through. then i replaced that one with a new item just to make sure everything i wanted wasnt out of stock still wouldnt work. if anyone can think of a good reason that order should not have gone through feel free to lay it out. only thing i could imagine would be their shipping policy and not wanting to deal with large boxes. but then again the girl on the phone didnt say whoa 80 items we just cant do that.

[sirhansirhan]

1. 80 games? I don't think any online store could handle that kind of order.
2. It clearly states that the games may not have box or instructions.
3. It doesn't matter what game it it, common or rare. If it says it may not have instructions or box, it may not have it.
4. If you're wanting a box and manual, you go to the store.

This is a pretty asinine post. Why the hell wouldn't their website be able to handle ordering 80 games? I've ordered that much stuff from, say, Amazon in one shot. 80 isn't really that many. If we were talking 500 or something, then maybe that might be a problem.

And while it does indeed clearly say that the games may not have the box or instructions, and for this reason I never buy stuff from their website, the scenario laid out by icbrkr above is way too glaring to ignore--80% of the games didn't have the box/manual? Show me a brick and mortar GameStop anywhere where 80% of their used stock does not have the box or instructions. This seems indicative that they are indeed intentionally anf evasively using their online store to unload the crap that wouldn't sell if people could look at it first.

And I see that you didn't flinch at the fact that icbrkr ordered 30 games at one time. What's your logic for the maximum an online retailer could handle?

[MrSparkle]

were at the 50 hour mark no response. their email based customer service people couldnt even be bothered within 2 business days to tell me "no we don't feel like checking on these for you". I am hereby declaring that i have lost all faith in gamestop. too bad there arent any other major chains.

[SegaAges]

Hmm, it is a website problem that probably happened from some glitch.

When was the last time you tried to add an item and checkout?

Have you tried a different web browser?

Just for fun, I put 1 used ps2 game in there (the cheapest 1 they had) and it went through fine for me.

[MrSparkle]

i haven't yet tried again i was waiting for a response. tried both firefox and internet explorer neither worked.

[Dangerboy]

...This is a pretty asinine post...

Hmm, fair enough.

It doesn't help that I forgot to add name tags to comments to show who I was talking to. >_>;;

However, as I don't usually get to be called asinine, I figured I'd follow up with the comments and some real world examples. Please bear in mind that everything in discussion is a YMMV situation, but here goes.

From Mr. Sparkle posts:
I can't think of any technical reason.

It's the internet; I can think of a million reasons. Browser issue, Odd glitch in the cart section, just some absolute random fluke that has regretfully spiraled into this situation. God knows this very forum has had its fair share of issues.

From Sirhansirhan
I've ordered that much stuff from, say, Amazon in one shot.
Right; except it's different web-site, different back-end, different situation. Again, as stated above, it might just have been some insane fluke (as far as the software issue goes).

"...the scenario laid out by icbrkr above is way too glaring to ignore--80% of the games didn't have the box/manual? Show me a brick and mortar GameStop anywhere where 80% of their used stock does not have the box or instructions..."

If we break it down into system specifics, my personal GameStop's used Xbox set is just reaching past the 50% mark on "generic cases only" games, and used GBA is roughly 90+% (yes, it's one of the few that keep the GBA boxes traded in). The used DS section is about 45 to 50%. These percentages will only increase as time goes on.

When the PSX and N64 were on their final days, they were all cart only, cd only. That was with at least 200 PSX games and 90 N64 games.

I can provide pictures if needed.

"...This seems indicative that they are indeed intentionally anf[sic] evasively using their online store to unload the crap that wouldn't sell if people could look at it first...."

We need to come to an understanding on something here, and this is an undeniable truth.

When you shop for something online, you are basically telling someone else to go shopping for you. This *IS NOT* implying laziness or anything of the sort. You are electronically telling someone to go grab your items, based on their policies, which you agree to by shopping with / paying them.

There aren't any people in a warehouse looking to screw anyone over; they don't know you from the next customer in line. By clicking a purchase item that clearly states "Item may not have box or instructions" you are telling this runner that the completeness of the game does not matter. Thus, they simply grab whatever is first in line of the stock and toss it in the box.

You're also forgetting that GameStop stores get the same stock from the warehouse that the end user does. We get the same amount of disc only games in our reburb shipments that we do of box only or complete ones. By your own accusation that means GameStop is trying to screw itself. Somehow I don't think that would help the situation any.

"...And I see that you didn't flinch at the fact that icbrkr ordered 30 games at one time. What's your logic for the maximum an online retailer could handle?..."

Why would I flinch? 30 is a lot less than 80.

Also, icbrkr clearly stated that he bought all GameCube games; meaning the store software only had to process items from a single category list.

MrSparkle stated that he was buying 80 games from three different categories (technically 4, as the PS2 used is divided into two 999 count categories), which means somewhere the process might have got it's wires crossed and caused the malfunction.

Having personally seen in-store PCs, *especially* the slave PCs come to a crashing halt or take a full two minutes to process, with anything over 50 items (trade-ins or sales promos). Perhaps it's just something in the ether.

###

In the end, it's just another one of those random fluke incidents that has spiraled into an online torch and pitchfork match.

[MrSparkle]

...This is a pretty asinine post...

Hmm, fair enough.

It doesn't help that I forgot to add name tags to comments to show who I was talking to. >_>;;

However, as I don't usually get to be called asinine, I figured I'd follow up with the comments and some real world examples. Please bear in mind that everything in discussion is a YMMV situation, but here goes.

From Mr. Sparkle posts:
I can't think of any technical reason.

It's the internet; I can think of a million reasons. Browser issue, Odd glitch in the cart section, just some absolute random fluke that has regretfully spiraled into this situation. God knows this very forum has had its fair share of issues.

From Sirhansirhan
I've ordered that much stuff from, say, Amazon in one shot.
Right; except it's different web-site, different back-end, different situation. Again, as stated above, it might just have been some insane fluke (as far as the software issue goes).

"...the scenario laid out by icbrkr above is way too glaring to ignore--80% of the games didn't have the box/manual? Show me a brick and mortar GameStop anywhere where 80% of their used stock does not have the box or instructions..."

If we break it down into system specifics, my personal GameStop's used Xbox set is just reaching past the 50% mark on "generic cases only" games, and used GBA is roughly 90+% (yes, it's one of the few that keep the GBA boxes traded in). The used DS section is about 45 to 50%. These percentages will only increase as time goes on.

When the PSX and N64 were on their final days, they were all cart only, cd only. That was with at least 200 PSX games and 90 N64 games.

I can provide pictures if needed.

"...This seems indicative that they are indeed intentionally anf[sic] evasively using their online store to unload the crap that wouldn't sell if people could look at it first...."

We need to come to an understanding on something here, and this is an undeniable truth.

When you shop for something online, you are basically telling someone else to go shopping for you. This *IS NOT* implying laziness or anything of the sort. You are electronically telling someone to go grab your items, based on their policies, which you agree to by shopping with / paying them.

There aren't any people in a warehouse looking to screw anyone over; they don't know you from the next customer in line. By clicking a purchase item that clearly states "Item may not have box or instructions" you are telling this runner that the completeness of the game does not matter. Thus, they simply grab whatever is first in line of the stock and toss it in the box.

You're also forgetting that GameStop stores get the same stock from the warehouse that the end user does. We get the same amount of disc only games in our reburb shipments that we do of box only or complete ones. By your own accusation that means GameStop is trying to screw itself. Somehow I don't think that would help the situation any.

"...And I see that you didn't flinch at the fact that icbrkr ordered 30 games at one time. What's your logic for the maximum an online retailer could handle?..."

Why would I flinch? 30 is a lot less than 80.

Also, icbrkr clearly stated that he bought all GameCube games; meaning the store software only had to process items from a single category list.

MrSparkle stated that he was buying 80 games from three different categories (technically 4, as the PS2 used is divided into two 999 count categories), which means somewhere the process might have got it's wires crossed and caused the malfunction.

Having personally seen in-store PCs, *especially* the slave PCs come to a crashing halt or take a full two minutes to process, with anything over 50 items (trade-ins or sales promos). Perhaps it's just something in the ether.

###

In the end, it's just another one of those random fluke incidents that has spiraled into an online torch and pitchfork match.

i understand how hard it can be to keep various types of computer systems running as i have to do so at my work. However this isn't some mom and pop operation they have an awful lot of money to throw at this to keep it up and running. I could forgive them IF they would have bothered to respond to my email. Even if they had said they can't look the items up for me. However they didn't even bother to respond in their stated response time line. This is inexcusable, good customer service is tantamount to an operation of this magnitude. I don't think there is a grand conspiracy to screw customers out of cases and manuals, however i would like to point out as a former employee in several warehouses that there can be alot of animosity towards the customers from warehouse workers. I have personally seen people trash or intentionally screw up customers orders for fun, to make their boss look incompetant, by mistake but just couldnt be bothered to fix it, one time a company complained about how their product was handled so when they sent someone in to see how we did things the order from our supervisor was to make sure to destroy a ton of stuff infront of them while packing it just to show that they needed better packaging. For the record the destroyed stuff that night still wound up getting shipped out. Now I'd like to say that most warehouse workers are some of the hardest working people you can find but still you have to take into account the fact that they have little to no interaction with the end consumer and dont feel really bad about not grabbing that case from the other side of the warehouse, or looking for the manual that their inventory says should be there but isn't.

[Dangerboy]

"...I could forgive them IF they would have bothered to respond to my email. Even if they had said they can't look the items up for me. However they didn't even bother to respond in their stated response time line...."

Any ticket # for the original report? You could always fire off a (another) follow-up email if they gave you one.

If anything, why not send a *courteous* e-mail to customer support explaining the situation, and asking if there was a separate 'high volume' sales route to go. I've personally gotten phone calls from Customer Service reps calling on behalf of customer requests looking for odd ball / special request needs (like a out-of-print system replacement, sending out extra copies of games cross-country, etc).

Another possibility is simply talking with a local store (mine's friendly, honest!) and seeing if they'd be able to fill your order ahead of you. Like, talk to a manager with a list, explain that you're looking to do a possible 80 game purchase of whatever he has on the list, so long as has complete great condition games, and then give them a day or two to start pulling the games. It's a long shot, but I'd be damned if I would turn away that much in used sales, especially if it meant a repeat customer.

You could even try asking for a DM's office number, and if they're cool, see if they could have store set-it up.

It'd also save you on the shipping costs.

It's possible that your online issue (as in the online function crash, not the lack of help) may have sparked a freak out in the Operations department and you may have unintentionally gotten lost in the shuffle while they figure out what went wrong.

[Half Japanese]

I don't have any horror stories of my own, mainly because I'm deathly afraid of the words "may not include an instruction manual or original box".


Show me a brick and mortar GameStop anywhere where 80% of their used stock does not have the box or instructions. This seems indicative that they are indeed intentionally anf evasively using their online store to unload the crap that wouldn't sell if people could look at it first.

And there we have the two main reasons I never order used games from Gamestop. The Amazon marketplace and/or eBay is far better in every imaginable way.

[sirhansirhan]

I don't see much need for me to continue arguing, as I feel like your response as quoted below was by and large pretty reasonable, but I just thought I'd clear a few things up.


From Sirhansirhan
I've ordered that much stuff from, say, Amazon in one shot.
Right; except it's different web-site, different back-end, different situation. Again, as stated above, it might just have been some insane fluke (as far as the software issue goes).


1. 80 games? I don't think any online store could handle that kind of order.

I was responding to the quote directly above. As far as the fluke theory goes, I'm willing to get on board with that. It was the insinuation that no online retailer could handle an order of 80+ items that I had a problem with.


If we break it down into system specifics, my personal GameStop's used Xbox set is just reaching past the 50% mark on "generic cases only" games, and used GBA is roughly 90+% (yes, it's one of the few that keep the GBA boxes traded in). The used DS section is about 45 to 50%. These percentages will only increase as time goes on.

When the PSX and N64 were on their final days, they were all cart only, cd only. That was with at least 200 PSX games and 90 N64 games.

I can provide pictures if needed.

Yes, I agree with this, too, except that my point was that you wouldn't be able to show me a GameStop where 80% of the whole store was lacking case and/or manual, even including GBA games and the like. I've never seen one anywhere close to that number, and I've been to a lot.

But yeah, in the final year or two that GameStop carried PS1 games, on that platform specifically I'd bet 95% were disc only in a generic jewel case.


"...This seems indicative that they are indeed intentionally anf[sic] evasively using their online store to unload the crap that wouldn't sell if people could look at it first...."

We need to come to an understanding on something here, and this is an undeniable truth.

When you shop for something online, you are basically telling someone else to go shopping for you. This *IS NOT* implying laziness or anything of the sort. You are electronically telling someone to go grab your items, based on their policies, which you agree to by shopping with / paying them.

There aren't any people in a warehouse looking to screw anyone over; they don't know you from the next customer in line. By clicking a purchase item that clearly states "Item may not have box or instructions" you are telling this runner that the completeness of the game does not matter. Thus, they simply grab whatever is first in line of the stock and toss it in the box.

You're also forgetting that GameStop stores get the same stock from the warehouse that the end user does. We get the same amount of disc only games in our reburb shipments that we do of box only or complete ones. By your own accusation that means GameStop is trying to screw itself. Somehow I don't think that would help the situation any.

Okay, how about this explanation then? I gather from your posts in this thread that you actually work in a GameStop, am I right? Say you get a list from corporate of games to ship to another store or back to the warehouse or whatever, and this list has a lot of stuff like "5 copies of Halo 3" when the store has ten in stock and "3 copies of Madden 07" when the store has 12 in stock, and you're the one pulling these games to send them back. The ones you send are the ones without cases, right? And we all know why: because people are less inclined to buy that shit, and you want rid of them. So all these stores are sending back the foulest of their games to stock the warehouse that supplies online orders. Perhaps there isn't malice towards the online customers on GameStop's part (although, to be honest, I doubt even that), but the end result is the same--the website is being used as a tool to get rid of the shitty-condition games that no one would buy if they saw them in person first. The 20% of the games that come from gamestop.com are the ones when the pull list says to send one copy of a game you only have one copy of in the first place, and that one copy is in good shape.


"...And I see that you didn't flinch at the fact that icbrkr ordered 30 games at one time. What's your logic for the maximum an online retailer could handle?..."

Why would I flinch? 30 is a lot less than 80.

But it's still more titles than most reasonable people would buy in one shot from a website. I think the website that is unprepared to handle an order of 80 games would very likely also be unprepared to handle an order of 30 games.


In the end, it's just another one of those random fluke incidents that has spiraled into an online torch and pitchfork match.

I agree that the case MrSparkle describes in this thread is probably a fluke, but still, I say we burn that monster down.

[Dangerboy]

Sirhansirhan:

Heh. ; )

Concerning shipments *from* stores.

Stores only ship out used product to other stores, not to home office. The only thing we send home office are a) defectives and b)recalls.

Recalls are only -new- product that must be either be sealed or perfect display copy.

Defectives are everything; new, used, system, accessory, etc.

As I mentioned before, there is no bias to who gets what used product of any variety *from* home office. I've been with the company for almost 7 years now, and I can share many stories over a Hard Lemonade of how we'd get in refurbished product that was not sell-worthy.

- I've had 3 to 5 "they resurfaced the TOPS?!" games come in, including a FF7*.
- We've had many,many GS refurbed decks have the wrong system cords.
- One shipment we had to replace over 15 DVD cases due to odd packing choices.
- Not to mention random mis-pulled shipments, one where there were 5 unspoken brand new PSP slims. Thankfully we're an honest bunch and added it to inventory.
- Most resurfaced games we get don't have the cases replaced; so we have to kindly remove all the "defect to warehouse" stickers off the discs.

However, like previously mentioned by someone else, maybe this was all just warehouse employees having bad days.

**Yes, it was a top surfaced FF7; we pulled out a PSone to test it out. The son of a gun worked fine, except none of the playable characters came up. It was just the first boss fight with only the bad guys and the background / menu. Much to say, it was "defected back out" to whence it came. ;)