Gamestop/Funcoland-whatever they were called then

[digtempest]

I was playing Mad Maestro on their demo PS2. W/out warning, the store clerk turns off the PS2 (while I'm still playing) and then tells they are about to close. This was 21 minutes before the store closing time. I said nothing and left the store. Needless to say, I haven't bought a game from them since or never will again. I assume these guys stay in biz because of dumb parents.

[digtempest]

Sorry I didn't meanto start a new topic. How can delete this post or move it to the another topic about stories about videogame stores.

[DigitalSpace]

I was playing Mad Maestro on their demo PS2. W/out warning, the store clerk turns off the PS2 (while I'm still playing) and then tells they are about to close. This was 21 minutes before the store closing time. I said nothing and left the store. Needless to say, I haven't bought a game from them since or never will again. I assume these guys stay in biz because of dumb parents.

Wild guess here, but it could have been that the clerk was tired of working and realized they could get away with closing the store early and getting off work a little earlier than usual - this happens more often than you think. Then again, maybe the clerk was an ass.

In either case, it was a kinda shitty thing to do. He could have at least warned you a few minutes before turning off the demo unit first.

Anyways, what topic were you trying to post in? If you have a link to it I'm sure you could PM a mod and they'd be willing to move it to wherever you intended it to be.

[Hovoc]

I was playing Mad Maestro on their demo PS2. W/out warning, the store clerk turns off the PS2 (while I'm still playing) and then tells they are about to close. This was 21 minutes before the store closing time. I said nothing and left the store. Needless to say, I haven't bought a game from them since or never will again. I assume these guys stay in biz because of dumb parents.


its actually common practice to turn those machines off 30min to an hour before closing to get people out of the store so they can close and get out of there at a decent hour.

they are there to make money and be around games, not to babysit little kids when they need to be preparing to close

[NoahsMyBro]

Sounds like an employee-friendly, and customer-unfriendly, place to work. At every customer-service/retail job I've had (and there were a lot of them, much to my regret), we've been required to stay open and continue serving customers PAST closing time. There was never a thought to 'allow employees to leave at a reasonable time', rather, if the store clock said 11:00PM, but a potential customer's watch said 10:54pm, than the customer would not be turned away and possibly think the store closed early out of laziness or disdain for the customer.

Did some customers abuse this practice? Sure. But if the store wants to provide good service and engender goodwill among customers, that was the way to do it. It is definitely unwise to kick customers out at closing or earlier, assuming you want customers to like shopping at the store.

As far as getting to leave a little earlier, well, the customers and retailer aren't obligated to employ a person and give them money. The worker is there to do the job, and the job (IMO) should require the employee to strive for the customer and the company's best interests. If the employee doesn't like staying until 10:20 instead of 10:05, he/she should look for a different job.

Just my $.02.

[Oobgarm]

they are there to make money and be around games, not to babysit little kids when they need to be preparing to close

While I wholeheartedly agree with that statement, the employee was still an ass for not telling the guy that they were prepping to close and just killing the system. Not saying that such was the case in this situation, but 'customers' who spend all day in the store just playing games without buying anything tend to grate on the nerves of employees-believe me, I know firsthand-but even then it still wouldn't warrant such a rude action.

If you want other reasons to hate Gamestop/Funco/EB, I highly suggest using the search feature since it's been beaten to death here using just about every reason under the sun.

[klausien]

Sounds like an employee-friendly, and customer-unfriendly, place to work.

30 minutes is definitely not too much to ask. The employees get paid very little, and have a discount that has been whittled down to barely more than the 10% of the used discount card. It used to be so fun to work there. Now it just sucks.

If the salesperson was impolite in doing so, then they are definitely an ass. When I worked there, I would have allowed someone who was earnestly trying out a game a chance to give it a shot. There are other machines you can turn off in the meantime.

[DigitalSpace]

If the employee doesn't like staying until 10:20 instead of 10:05, he/she should look for a different job.

Agreed. It's out of line, but it happens anyway. :/

I remember when I was at a Game Crazy at closing and I bought some Sega Genesis cart (I forget what the game was at the moment). Anyways, the clerk had to unlock the door for me. I then realized that I had lost track of the time and the store had closed about 5 minutes ago and the guy had been nice enough to let me look around for a couple more minutes. On a side note, the guy didn't inform me when the store was officially supposed to be closed, and I'm not sure why, but the point is, it was a pretty nice gesture. :)

[Hovoc]

I remember when I was at a Game Crazy at closing and I bought some Sega Genesis cart (I forget what the game was at the moment). Anyways, the clerk had to unlock the door for me. I then realized that I had lost track of the time and the store had closed about 5 minutes ago and the guy had been nice enough to let me look around for a couple more minutes. On a side note, the guy didn't inform me when the store was officially supposed to be closed, and I'm not sure why, but the point is, it was a pretty nice gesture. :)


if the customer is a potential customer, thats great. if its someone who has been in the store for a while and only have been playing games then they need to go.

coming into a store that late at night (9:30ish) knowing that most businesses arent open that late is rediculous, especially if your not buying something.

when i was at gamestop (at the time funco) we turned off our machines at 9, so we could close at 10, we stopped trade ins at 830 or 9 as well, bc people would bring a shit load of stuff and trade in at the last minute. so ontop of having to label and stock 100 games and periphiels by closing, me, being an asst. mgr, had to do the paper work while the other employee closing would have to straighten up to get out by 10. if we werent out by 10:15 at the latelst ADT would call asking if everythign was ok, then theyd call the managers and let them know the store alarm wasnt set, then id have to explain that to the store manager and DM, not a very fun thing to do.

ive had many people walk into my store after 9, notice the games were off, and immediately leave. are these customers i need to stay open for? did these people 100% intend to buy a game?


digtempest wrote:

I was playing Mad Maestro on their demo PS2. W/out warning, the store clerk turns off the PS2 (while I'm still playing) and then tells they are about to close. This was 21 minutes before the store closing time. I said nothing and left the store. Needless to say, I haven't bought a game from them since or never will again. I assume these guys stay in biz because of dumb parents.


you admit you were just playing on the demo unit. you admit you had been playing on the demo unit for an un-said amount of time. perhaps the employee thought you had played enough or thought that you had no intention to buy the game, as he sees many many people like that through out the day. was the employee 100% right in his actions? no, but at the same time, you should have been aware of what time it was, notice that other systems may have been off, and notice the lack of other customers in the store.


i for one make it a practice not to stay in a store more than needed if i plan on not purchasing anythign, buy hey its just me i guess, or maybe it stems from my many years in retail :D [/i]

[slip81]

I also agree, that clerk was being an ass, if you have customers in your store you should allow them to inish what they are doing. You don't just abruptly end what they are doing or kick them out w/out warning. I work at a local dollar store as a supervisor, and often times there are people in there very close to closing time. I always allow them to finish up and pay without saying anything to them.

The only time I will say something to a customer is if it is actually closing time and the peroson doesn't look like they are even close to ready to leave (sometimes people spend hours in there). And when I do inform people that it's time to close up I'm always polite.

[FantasiaWHT]

I 100% agree with what the clerk did, if not the abruptness of it.

We turn off machines 30 minutes before close or so. Heck even if somebody is just sitting and playing the games for too long of a time and not buying anything (kids dropped off by parents usually) I tell them they need to stop playing, and if they don't, I pull the plug.

And I find it fascinating how many people will rant about the entire company (EB, Gamestop, etc.) when they've had experience with (a) bad clerk(s) at one store.

One thing to rip a company for its policy, another to rip it for some of its employees.

BTW, who said they actually CLOSED 20 minutes early? "About to close" seems pretty open-ended to me, yet a lot of people in this post went under the assumption that the store actually closed early, which is hugely against any policy I've ever seen, unless maybe it's just a local mom/pop store.

[morphx]

Those who have not worked at a game store like this need to take that into account before making comments. I worked at a Funco and you would not believe how many hours of free babysitting we were duped into providing. Not to mention the fact that every night you are required to inventory the entire store. new/used games/systems. So yes the games get cut off 30 minutes before store close. Maybe the clerk was having a bad day but it happens to all of us.

[Cryomancer]

I think he's right to get you to quit and get going, but did he actually come up, and turn it off without a word in mid game? That seems a little rude maybe, like he couldn't say "hey, we're starting the closing stuff up, we gotta shut of the demo units" etc. I don't think it's the action that is the problem as much as it is the method, if what I infer from the post is correct, which might not be the case as well.

[Hovoc]

Those who have not worked at a game store like this need to take that into account before making comments. I worked at a Funco and you would not believe how many hours of free babysitting we were duped into providing. Not to mention the fact that every night you are required to inventory the entire store. new/used games/systems. So yes the games get cut off 30 minutes before store close. Maybe the clerk was having a bad day but it happens to all of us.


never heard of the inventory thing, unless you menat just straightenning up and making sure nothing is in the wrong section

but as far as babysitting..we used to open at 9am during the week, id have to get there at 8 to count money, go to bank, recieve inventory, send out mail, etc.

when i get there at 8 or a little before, thered always be one kid sitting on the sidewalk waiting for us to open, hed sit there while i do my work related stuff, and hed be there when i got back from the bank, at which id open the door, turn on the sign, and fire up the consoles, hed follow in and would stay and play games until his mommy or daddy came to get him, or until he decided to go get lunch from one of the places in the center.

i used to get pissed off bc 1. its fucking wrong to leave your kid in a public place, unattended, 2. we arent babysitters, 3. hell i wouldnt mind it if a. you either buy shit from us to make our time watching your kid worth it, or b. pay us to watch him :)

[morphx]

Man our DM made us count everything, fill out a log book and call his voicemail nightly with the counts.

Off topic, but worse day at funco is the day DC came out and we stayed open ti 2am selling it. Poor delivery dude got their late (around 11:30pm) and almost got mobbed.

[Hovoc]

Man our DM made us count everything, fill out a log book and call his voicemail nightly with the counts.

Off topic, but worse day at funco is the day DC came out and we stayed open ti 2am selling it. Poor delivery dude got their late (around 11:30pm) and almost got mobbed.

sorry sorry your right, i think that started close to when i left


each day we had to count one system used, then the next the new, and so on

[DigitalSpace]

if the customer is a potential customer, thats great. if its someone who has been in the store for a while and only have been playing games then they need to go.

Agreed on both points.

It probably helped that I was holding the Genny cart as I was walking around the store, so the clerk knew I was getting something.



when i get there at 8 or a little before, thered always be one kid sitting on the sidewalk waiting for us to open, hed sit there while i do my work related stuff, and hed be there when i got back from the bank, at which id open the door, turn on the sign, and fire up the consoles, hed follow in and would stay and play games until his mommy or daddy came to get him, or until he decided to go get lunch from one of the places in the center.

i used to get pissed off bc 1. its fucking wrong to leave your kid in a public place, unattended, 2. we arent babysitters, 3. hell i wouldnt mind it if a. you either buy shit from us to make our time watching your kid worth it, or b. pay us to watch him :)

And that's just fucked up. I'd be pissed too. You're running a game store, not a babysitting service, and that's just completely stupid for any parent to just leave a kid like that.



BTW, who said they actually CLOSED 20 minutes early? "About to close" seems pretty open-ended to me, yet a lot of people in this post went under the assumption that the store actually closed early, which is hugely against any policy I've ever seen, unless maybe it's just a local mom/pop store.

Whoops... that was probably my fault for bringing it up as a completely wild guess. LOL

It probably didn't happen, but who knows? And if it did happen, it was completely out of line.

And I have seen this happen before - for example, I'll be at a mall 15 minutes to closing, and I'll see one or maybe two stores closing up.

On a side note, I've been in my local Gamestop 10 minutes or so to closing several times, and they've never had the units off 30 minutes, so please take note that I've based my comments off that and I thought that most of their stores just kept them on until 5 minutes to closing or something. Until I came across this thread, I never realized that turning off demo units 30 minutes to an hour before closing time was the norm.

[Hovoc]

first off, i wanna say, please dont think im bashing you in any way.

but people come on here all the time bitching about "insert hated company here" and thats like me saying, fuck the entire lowe's home improvement company, bc one store fired me" its just wrong to say you hate all of one company for somethign a few stores did.

3rd, diff. stores have diff. policies. its why they are called store policies and not company policies. in my area, the local stores have come up with rules to detract customers from doing stuff such as extremely large trade ins close to closign time. not only does it help us get out of there earlier, it also presents a nice, clean, sorted store for your enjoyment the next day. :D

[Oobgarm]

Those who have not worked at a game store like this need to take that into account before making comments. I worked at a Funco and you would not believe how many hours of free babysitting we were duped into providing. Not to mention the fact that every night you are required to inventory the entire store. new/used games/systems. So yes the games get cut off 30 minutes before store close. Maybe the clerk was having a bad day but it happens to all of us.


never heard of the inventory thing, unless you menat just straightenning up and making sure nothing is in the wrong section

Actually, waaay back in the old Funco days, COUNTS were a required nightly process that involved the employees counting EVERY game in the store, new and used. Not a detailed inventory, mind you, just a quantity count. Systems too. We had to start doing that at 8:15-8:30 in order to get done on time. And we were a small store in comparison.

I think current GS stores only count stuff nightly if they've had a bad inventory recently. Don't quote me on that, though.

[Hovoc]

Actually, waaay back in the old Funco days, COUNTS were a required nightly process that involved the employees counting EVERY game in the store, new and used. Not a detailed inventory, mind you, just a quantity count. Systems too. We had to start doing that at 8:15-8:30 in order to get done on time. And we were a small store in comparison.

I think current GS stores only count stuff nightly if they've had a bad inventory recently. Don't quote me on that, though.


yeha a little later on in the conversation, i bring up that i actually remember that, but jesus its been 3 years since i worked there, i cant be held accoutnable for remember all the policies :roll:

[morphx]

Don't forget to weed through all 400 off the game title placards to change the weekly top 10 and the weekly upcoming releases....I did that for a few months then I just started writing the names in sharpie on the back of a random placard.

[Hovoc]

Don't forget to weed through all 400 off the game title placards to change the weekly top 10 and the weekly upcoming releases....I did that for a few months then I just started writing the names in sharpie on the back of a random placard.


dude, hit me up on aim (hovocx) or return my pm :P

[chocobokick]

I quit in January, but when I was ASM for the busiest mall Gamestop in the area we had signs on the systems asking to limit time to 15 minutes. After that sometimes we would turn them off on people. Or turn them off if the store was really busy, etc. It's not an arcade people, it's a (usually understaffed) business. We had to do counts every night, and the paperwork was horrible. Everyone in the mall would be gone before us. Counting stuff may not sound like a big deal, but usually it was counting EVERYTHING. All the systems, every xbox, gcube, PS2 game. And if you were off by more then 3, guess what you get to start over! And it's not the shells on the shelf you are counting but every locked up game and gut.
I shop at the stores that show me decent respect while I'm a customer, otherwise you can't really blame them for anything small like turning the game system off you were playing. You would understand if you had ever worked retail.

[morphx]

PM returned.

Yea and with all teh CD games its harder to cheat at counts...With Genesis you knew 33 were in a row and if the row was full you could multiply and get a quick count. With 2503489 playstation games in a drawer it takes much longer. I used to be able to count the whole rest of the store in the time it took to count PS1/DC used games.

Best college job ever, scored a lot of stuff that the store wouldn't buy back. My TG-16 came from a customer, only wanted 5 bucks for a boxed system.

Oh and you other funco workers did you fake your numbers? We used to jack our items per sell number way up by buying 25 SMB/Duck hunt carts at a time....Nice bonus for only a buck. Then sell them back and do it the next day LOL

[Hovoc]

PM returned.

Yea and with all teh CD games its harder to cheat at counts...With Genesis you knew 33 were in a row and if the row was full you could multiply and get a quick count. With 2503489 playstation games in a drawer it takes much longer. I used to be able to count the whole rest of the store in the time it took to count PS1/DC used games.

Best college job ever, scored a lot of stuff that the store wouldn't buy back. My TG-16 came from a customer, only wanted 5 bucks for a boxed system.

Oh and you other funco workers did you fake your numbers? We used to jack our items per sell number way up by buying 25 SMB/Duck hunt carts at a time....Nice bonus for only a buck. Then sell them back and do it the next day LOL


nah never did that, not that i was aware of anyways


and free shit rocked, got my 2 DC's from a customer who dropped them off saying they didnt work.

guess he forgot to plug them in?

[morphx]

For all you out there that complain about game store workers, just remember these 2 words....pokemon cards.....selling that crap is enough to turn jesus in to a disgruntled employee.

[Hovoc]

For all you out there that complain about game store workers, just remember these 2 words....pokemon cards.....selling that crap is enough to turn jesus in to a disgruntled employee.

dont forget magic.......

[Daria]

God I hated those demo machines and the people who would come in not to shop, but to play a free game, I used to shut them off all the time and tell the "kid" to try the arcade next door.

Funniest moment was when my boyfriend worked next door at FYE (they had an arcade but he worked in the actual store) his manager used to shut their demo units off in the backroom while people were on the machines at the front of the store. They'd look all confused and jiggle the controller around/smack the side of the machine then glance around and try and look like they didn't break it. :devilish:

[Hovoc]

i love the kids that would sit there and play for hours and either ask for another game or ask to have the machine be reset since it froze

[morphx]

Best funco memory was our mall's security guard....5'5 black dude dressed in all black/white camo with a knife straffed to one thigh and a tazer to the other, we used to call him Rambo...One day some hoodrats snuck into our back room and ran outta the store with 4 defetive GBC's rambo saw them and chased all three down, hog tied them with flex cuffs and everything

[Hovoc]

Best funco memory was our mall's security guard....5'5 black dude dressed in all black/white camo with a knife straffed to one thigh and a tazer to the other, we used to call him Rambo...One day some hoodrats snuck into our back room and ran outta the store with 4 defetive GBC's rambo saw them and chased all three down, hog tied them with flex cuffs and everything

hell yeah! :rocker:

[morphx]

Lest we forget all the parents that would show up xmas eve 5 minutes after closing time telling their sob stories about how their kid really wants blah blah game....Well if it was that important I would hope you would've started shopping a little earlier...I was shocked the first xmas eve I worked to see 5-10 people standing outside banging on the glass to get our attention...

[GarrettCRW]

i love the kids that would sit there and play for hours and either ask for another game or ask to have the machine be reset since it froze

I hate those kids whilst working electronics at Target. Almost as much as I hate people outside in lawn & garden who get steamed when you close down the place 15 minutes because a) no business for four hours (therefore leading to massive amounts of boredom), b) it's friggin' cold (and windy), and c) it's starting to rain. There is such a thing as unrealistic expectations, kids.

[Hovoc]

Lest we forget all the parents that would show up xmas eve 5 minutes after closing time telling their sob stories about how their kid really wants blah blah game....Well if it was that important I would hope you would've started shopping a little earlier...I was shocked the first xmas eve I worked to see 5-10 people standing outside banging on the glass to get our attention...

god forbid you get to go home and spend christmas eve with your family....

[GarrettCRW]

Every year I've closed Christmas Eve at Target, we've had to let the slobs know that we have families, too, after the store has closed. *Multiple times*. Plus the common complaint on said day that we don't have [insert gift here]. Well, duh! We got our last shipment last Saturday (if it was even that close). Try shopping *on time* next year, OK?

[Hovoc]

Every year I've closed Christmas Eve at Target, we've had to let the slobs know that we have families, too, after the store has closed. *Multiple times*. Plus the common complaint on said day that we don't have [insert gift here]. Well, duh! We got our last shipment last Saturday (if it was even that close). Try shopping *on time* next year, OK?


never understood why there is so many customers still shopping on christmas eve


must make you feel proud that you love your kids enough to shop so early in the holiday season....

[digtempest]

I was playing for about 10 minutes. I wasn't killing time. I was thinking about picking up a game. To sum it all up: Bad Customer Service!

[Hovoc]

I was playing for about 10 minutes. I wasn't killing time. I was thinking about picking up a game. To sum it all up: Bad Customer Service!


thank you for clearing that up, im sure you will no longer become the target of this conversation :D

[morphx]

No I would have put in Pokemon in the VCR and told all the kiddies you were ash.

Thats a more polite way to say we're closing up IMO.

jk

[Time]

No I would have put in Pokemon in the VCR and told all the kiddies you were ash.

Thats a more polite way to say we're closing up IMO.

jk



:D This reply made my day. Perfect start to the weekend!!! :D

[FantasiaWHT]

I'm just glad our store's inventory is so freaking huge (biggest store in the district)

Since it takes a team of about 5 people 3 hours to count all our games/systems/toys/etc. we don't do that :P We do daily counts on certain items, and everything gets counted every week, but not every day thank god.

[kainemaxwell]

Every year I've closed Christmas Eve at Target, we've had to let the slobs know that we have families, too, after the store has closed. *Multiple times*. Plus the common complaint on said day that we don't have [insert gift here]. Well, duh! We got our last shipment last Saturday (if it was even that close). Try shopping *on time* next year, OK?

We got alot of that at Toys R Us too, along with customers trying to pay us to find stuff for them.

[GarrettCRW]

I didn't even mention how some lady tried to bribe me a whopping 50 bucks to hold an X-Box for her the first year it came out. I laughed and laughed (not in her face, amazingly).....