Gamestop stories

[ReaXan]

Gamestop is more for the crowd who like to get Black Ops or a similiar game at launch and then proceed to sell their $40 dollar game they bought last month for $12. Those kind of people have to get the flavor of the week game and Gamestop appeals to them. However these people have wised up and have started using Craigslist to sell their old games.

Real collectors stay away from Gamestop like the plague. I have been disappointed in dealing with them except for a few rare times going back to Funcoland in like 98.

However people like Suicide Bob from "Tru Life, I am a Gamer" go into Gamestop to preorder games. I saw him at my local store talking about how Silent Hill Homecoming sucked

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE9x8JPrwFc

[Icarus Moonsight]

Last time I actively went to GameStops was when they had the Devil Summoner 2 boxes for $20. Me and Fuyukaze cleared out the stores within 50 miles drive. No complaints.

SLAPNUTS! It's funny 'cause it's true.

[duffmanth]

I actually broke my resistance with Game Stop to purchase my younger brother some DS games there. (If interested my problems with GS date back to an issue with the DS Power Supply and the righteous phrase "I played Contra when I was your age").

I purchased Starfox, Sonic Rush, and Ben 10 for my brother (he is 7) all for under $25 with tax. (Pretty good for a last min holiday gift). I found the workers to be average at best nothing spectacular but hey I work retail too so I know how things are. The assistant manager Sheldon was pretty clueless about games. I heard a good earful of misleading crap about games and he tried to flex his knowledge of gaming (more laughable then anything). Saw Sheldon come into my store a three days ago to purchase an item and we got to talking. Bottom line I got onto video games and he pulls the "I'll have you know I'm an ASM at Game Stop!" card. Well I gave him a couple of shots about his video game knowledge and he was none too happy. Tried to fight back but he left red faced and I heard from one of his GSR's that he was mad all da'y about something.

If you ask me the days of the cool retail sales people in game stores are dead. Most people left in the retail game industry are bound by strict policies/managers or do not care for games as much as others.

This is why I mostly shop at indy game stores. Fortunately there a few really great ones with cool and knowledgeable staff in my area.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

While I can't speak directly to any of GameStop's current policies, pricing, or reservation/upsale strategies, as a long-time manager of a Funcoland, I'd say that a great deal of "frustrations" felt by users venting in this thread is simply a matter of perspective.

For every "omg GameStop suxxorz!" rant, I can guarantee you that there's a "you'll never believe what this idiot customer said/did." story to be told.

Without discounting the legitimacy of any of the frustrations over things like low trade-in rates, opened copies being sold at new prices, borked reservations/promos, etc. (because, those things absolutely do happen)

... some people need to keep in mind that most GameStop (and similar game retail store) employees deal with a huge HUGE HUGE amount of ignorance/grating personalities/behaviors from customers on a daily basis and while that's no outright excuse for bad service or bad company policy, that kind of thing rapidly wears away on the tolerance level of most sane, reasonable people and has a tendency to make them short-tempered, bitter, and apathetic despite their best efforts to avoid that kind of behavior.

Just remember there are always two sides to every story.

[pepharytheworm]

Just remember there are always two sides to every story.

Can we hear one of your other side of the story?

I was the manager of a Gamestop, and to be honest anything I did to make the store better for the customers and the employees, the DM would make me stop. A good example: we for a time were suppose to gut 8 copies of a new release, one diferent one per shelf, so thats around 8 different titles gutted 8 times. Because I didn't want that many new releases gutted, I used the available now artwork to place in the new release section only to be told I can't use them.

Also, sometimes new cases on the floor get stolen, if I had a lot of said title used I would use it for the new case instead of a generic case. I would rather sell a used game in a generic case then a new one. Of course that was stopped too. I know its not "new" and I would let the cutomer know, but they are always happier with an actual case when buying new.

I also did not want my associates taking new games home to play them, as I hate selling played games as new. Opened is one thing but played is another. I would also put the clear stickers on the sleeve of all new games so even though we gutted them I know it was only touched to put in the sleeve once. Even when we put it in the case we left it there, so the next person to touch the game is the purchaser. Of course I was told I couldn't do this when an associate complained they couldn't try new games out to the DM.

[VACRMH]

I've done my best to avoid Gamestop for the past few years, not so much from something that's happened, but just because I can get better deals elsewhere.

But I'm sure I used to drive a manager up the wall whenever I'd ask for a sealed copy of a game. I don't know if the stores that I'd shop at were pushed to sell gutted games, but whenever I'd decline taking a gutted copy they would give me a look of how they couldn't fathom someone asking for this, and would try to explain how it's the same thing.

I usually try to be nice with my requests, cause they're petty (Bought the last copy of Sakura Wars for PS2 at one store, gutted and crushed box, and exchanged it for a sealed copy at another) but if I'm not being holier than thou about how I must have a sealed game, don't give me crap for it.

One time it was pretty funny to make someone stop giving me the pre-order runaround however. I finally decided I would buy Super Street Fighter 4, the day it was out. Checked one store and they were out so I had them call another, went to that store and picked it up.

While he was ringing me up he was going on about how I could have reserved and gotten it right away, and I told him it was a last minute decision and I usually order from amazon. He said I could have the game on release date and such, but I told him that on amazon, I don't pay tax or shipping, and in the case of SSF4 I would have gotten a few bucks (I'm thinking $5?) in free credit just for buying it there.

He probably checked Amazon after that

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Can we hear one of your other side of the story?

I'm actually saving most of my good stories for a Ken Burns style documentary/retrospective that I hope to produce one day.

Also, while Funcoland was the blueprint/model for the GameStop store as we know it it was a pretty different animal in terms of how a modern GameStop operates.

When I was with the company (97-2001) for a majority of that time - they didn't do cash trade ins, they didn't put any games or valuable merch out on the sales floor, they didn't gut new games, they didn't allow employees to take anything home (used or otherwise) and they did little to no reservation based business.

So, ultimately, my stories don't quite have a parity to most of the complaints here, but in general there were a bunch of archetype "characters" that we dealt with back then that I continue to see in my more passive role in game retail today:

The "clueless soccer-moms/Nascar dads" and their spoiled manner-less children.

The obsessive "daily callers" (or visitors) who had a lists of "wants" that they would obsessively request us to find and hold in our inventory (and seldom if ever make good on picking them up).

The myriad of customers who couldn't wrap their head around the concept of how a used game sales business operates for profit even WITH a logical explanation of how used software depreciates in value and is typically only sold at a high profit margin if it's new/rare/desirable (i.e. "What do you mean I only get X amount of money for this game that I paid X amount of money for?").

The customers who felt compelled to ask for "discounts" for no reason whatsoever (or no good one i.e. "I'm spending $300 here, can't you give me a discount?").

The ever-present attempts to "return" new games based on the claim that they "don't work in my system", where the poorly obscured reality of their position is that they simply just "didn't like them".

The loiterers who would interfere with our standard business (i.e. when we would tell a consumer the trade-in price on a game the loiterer would make that consumer a higher cash offer right in front of us ... this may sound unique but it was NOT an isolated phenomenon, it was something we dealt with on a very regular basis).

I could go on, but if you were a manager, I'm sure you're familiar with at least a few of those cast of "regulars".

And, don't get me wrong, being a part of that retail world one should fully understand and expect (or quickly learn) to deal with those scenarios on a regular basis.

I'm not claiming that any of the above is an excuse for a GameStop employee to treat any of those people poorly, customer service is customer service is customer service, but we're all human and a daily parade of the above can really get to a guy/gal ...

These threads venting frustration on game retail stores like Gamestop and Play N Trade only from the consumer point of view are a bit of a one-sided look at things.

I'm sure you won't find many GameStop employees extolling the virtues of what a casual/easy/stress-free job they have.

[calgon]

I'm not going to pretend I'm still an active member of any gaming scene or that the medium still interests me the way it once did, but I'd be remiss if I didn't share this gem...
I loved funcoland back from 2000-2003ish. During that time I enjoyed browsing their NES and SNES collection, looking for hidden gems and talking to a mostly knowledgeable staff of 20 or 20-somethings about games. I noticed that when Gamestop bought out funco and EB, the employees got much younger, and the stores mantra seemed to shift to pre-orders and edge cards. This was a business decision and Gamestop is a business, so that was fine with me. Anyway, around the time Wind-Waker was released, I happened to be in line behind a mother and her young son. The clerk was delivering the pitch of their reward card and touting the free subscription to game informer. The Mom seemed hesitant and asked if it had anything to do with Wind-waker. The clerk than responded with "This magazine will teach you all the codes in wind-waker as well as how to beat the game." At this point I just smiled thinking how ridiculous the whole thing sounded when I then overheard the employee say "you wont be able to beat the game without this."

It was at that point I realized that gamestop was now no longer any different from a used-car dealership filled with creepy salespeople who would lie to their mother if it made them a buck.

Sorry for the novel up there, but that story has always stuck with me, and is the chief reason why I've entered a gamestop maybe three times in the past seven years.

[Flashback2012]

Can we hear one of your other side of the story?

I was the manager of a Gamestop, and to be honest anything I did to make the store better for the customers and the employees, the DM would make me stop. A good example: we for a time were suppose to gut 8 copies of a new release, one diferent one per shelf, so thats around 8 different titles gutted 8 times. Because I didn't want that many new releases gutted, I used the available now artwork to place in the new release section only to be told I can't use them.

Also, sometimes new cases on the floor get stolen, if I had a lot of said title used I would use it for the new case instead of a generic case. I would rather sell a used game in a generic case then a new one. Of course that was stopped too. I know its not "new" and I would let the cutomer know, but they are always happier with an actual case when buying new.

I also did not want my associates taking new games home to play them, as I hate selling played games as new. Opened is one thing but played is another. I would also put the clear stickers on the sleeve of all new games so even though we gutted them I know it was only touched to put in the sleeve once. Even when we put it in the case we left it there, so the next person to touch the game is the purchaser. Of course I was told I couldn't do this when an associate complained they couldn't try new games out to the DM.

Aside from the clowns in corporate, one of the biggest problems that continues to plague Gamestop is/are the DMs (District Managers) and RDs (Regional Directors). I know from personal experience that an overwhelming number of these individuals were hires from outside the company from other similar positions in other companies as opposed to being promoted internally. These middle management hucksters didn't have the first clue about games or gaming, I can recall several instances where a DM would be on the floor with me and a customer would ask them a gaming question. Without hesitation, the DM would defer to me or another associate to field the answer for the customer instead of answering it themselves. Granted, I understand his job was to manage people and my job was customer service and game knowledge but it felt mildly embarrassing that these people in charge didn't have the first clue about the products their company carried.

By the same token, it was mildly funny at times where a DM was forced to help on the sales floor. I remember one instance where the DM terminated one of my managers mid-shift. Right after doing so, the store got PACKED with customers and I couldn't handle all of the customers on my own. The DM had to help me out and he was actually more of a hindrance than a help. Ultimately, about the only thing he was good for, which he quickly realized, was fetching games for me that the customers wanted. All of the sales pitching and answering of questions about games was left to me (including ringing out purchases because he had NO clue how to use the POS). I have NEVER cared for those kinds of bosses, I've always felt my boss should be able to do the same job as I can and then some.

[TonyTheTiger]

I don't have any experience working in actual game retail but I did work at Blockbuster. And whenever these anti-GameStop threads pop up at least 95% of the complaints aren't actually GameStop specific. Individual corporate policies aside, the employees and general "personality" inside is going to make or break the overall shopping experience at any store.

Retail jobs are retail jobs. Generally speaking, they're populated by young college age people looking to earn a few bucks before moving on to the next step in their lives. Turnover is going to be pretty high.

They're going to be doing their best to strike a balance between the employee handbook way of doing things and the real world way of doing things which often don't quite match up. And if they swing too far in one direction they risk either getting in trouble (or getting their managers in trouble) or alienating customers who get freaked out by the Stepford "Welcome to X, my name is Y, how can I help you today?"

They're looking to help you purchase whatever you're going to purchase and that's about it. They're not there to take any verbal assault from a customer upset over something like opened shelf copies or trade in values. And, truthfully, they're not really there to opine on the finer points of the hobby, either. They should have a working knowledge of the merchandise to help a customer but there's no reason they should be expected to be gurus of field.

[Zthun]

The loiterers who would interfere with our standard business (i.e. when we would tell a consumer the trade-in price on a game the loiterer would make that consumer a higher cash offer right in front of us ... this may sound unique but it was NOT an isolated phenomenon, it was something we dealt with on a very regular basis).

What is the policy with this one (I assume kick the guy out of the store)?

[megasdkirby]

What is the policy with this one (I assume kick the guy out of the store)?

Good question. What can the store do if they lack security personnel? It's easy if the store has some, but for a store lacking any security personnel, how can they enforce rules and a "ban" from a store?

[Kitsune Sniper]

Can't they call the cops? That's what stores (not Gamestop) around here do, anyway.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

What is the policy with this one (I assume kick the guy out of the store)?

I would ask the loiterers not to do that and if they weren't making a purchase (from Funcoland) to leave the store.

On a few occasions I had to call mall security to usher the loiterers out. One angry loiterer came back with a VHS camera and started harassing my staff about being kicked out (he was genuinely clueless that what he was doing by interfering with our business was wrong on any level) and I needed to get the local police to come down.

I took no joy in any of it, massive headache those people were.

[zyo]

They're not there to take any verbal assault from a customer upset over something like opened shelf copies or trade in values. And, truthfully, they're not really there to opine on the finer points of the hobby, either. They should have a working knowledge of the merchandise to help a customer but there's no reason they should be expected to be gurus of field.

There's a big difference between "verbal assault" and wanting to get your moneys worth. When you say you want a sealed copy, they roll their eyes and speak in a sarcastic tone, and act like they're doing you a favor by taking your money, there's no excuse for that anywhere. I've worked in retail before and it wasn't tolerated. But it's fine, they're the next blockbuster video, it's only a matter of time.

[megasdkirby]

I took no joy in any of it, massive headache those people were.

At first I was like this, but after nearly five years at retail, I started to love these type of situations and people. May sound mean, but it's better to enjoy their stupidity than to be subjected negatively to it.

[Doonzmore]

Chalk me up as another person who is annoyed as hell about edge card memberships. A close friend of mine recently subscribed to GI so I just use his to save me from the bullshit. I kindly explained to the same employee numerous times that I don't have any of the new consoles so I wouldn't have much use for the magazine, and I always get the same response:

"Still be saving money"

Uh, yeah, if I spend over 150 a year. Not likely when you buy nothing but GBA and GC games during the B2G1 sales. Dumbass.

On another note, once my brother and I went in so he could buy FIFA 09 for the 360. A new copy was 20 and a used copy was 18. The same employee made the rude remark, "have something against buying used games?"

Maybe if it were more than just a god damn 2 dollar difference.

[Flashback2012]

Also, while Funcoland was the blueprint/model for the GameStop store as we know it it was a pretty different animal in terms of how a modern GameStop operates.

I imagine this is splitting hairs but the first sentence isn't entirely true. Funcoland was around for a few years before Gamestop even existed. I worked for Funcoland from '97-'99 and jumped ship to Gamestop just as it was starting up. About the only thing Funcoland and Gamestop had in common in '99 were that they both sold used games. There was no cleaning kits that you had to essentially force onto customers like you did at Funcoland, there was no pitching the Game Informer magazine. There was no retaining of boxes of games just so they could be used as a display. There was no incessant nightly counts of games.

When I was with the company (97-2001) for a majority of that time - they didn't do cash trade ins, they didn't put any games or valuable merch out on the sales floor, they didn't gut new games, they didn't allow employees to take anything home (used or otherwise) and they did little to no reservation based business.

The easiest explanation for this paragraph is because Funcoland and Gamestop were two separate companies for half the time you listed and even after the buyout/merger, Funcoland didn't fully transition over to the Gamestop model because of the cost associated with upgrading the POS in all of the existing Funcoland stores.

So, ultimately, my stories don't quite have a parity to most of the complaints here, but in general there were a bunch of archetype "characters" that we dealt with back then that I continue to see in my more passive role in game retail today:

The "clueless soccer-moms/Nascar dads" and their spoiled manner-less children.

The obsessive "daily callers" (or visitors) who had a lists of "wants" that they would obsessively request us to find and hold in our inventory (and seldom if ever make good on picking them up).

The myriad of customers who couldn't wrap their head around the concept of how a used game sales business operates for profit even WITH a logical explanation of how used software depreciates in value and is typically only sold at a high profit margin if it's new/rare/desirable (i.e. "What do you mean I only get X amount of money for this game that I paid X amount of money for?").

The customers who felt compelled to ask for "discounts" for no reason whatsoever (or no good one i.e. "I'm spending $300 here, can't you give me a discount?").

The ever-present attempts to "return" new games based on the claim that they "don't work in my system", where the poorly obscured reality of their position is that they simply just "didn't like them".

The loiterers who would interfere with our standard business (i.e. when we would tell a consumer the trade-in price on a game the loiterer would make that consumer a higher cash offer right in front of us ... this may sound unique but it was NOT an isolated phenomenon, it was something we dealt with on a very regular basis).

I could go on, but if you were a manager, I'm sure you're familiar with at least a few of those cast of "regulars".

And, don't get me wrong, being a part of that retail world one should fully understand and expect (or quickly learn) to deal with those scenarios on a regular basis.

I'm not claiming that any of the above is an excuse for a GameStop employee to treat any of those people poorly, customer service is customer service is customer service, but we're all human and a daily parade of the above can really get to a guy/gal ...

Heh. Seeing all these archetypes listed out invokes several stories and memories/interactions I've had with each type.

These threads venting frustration on game retail stores like Gamestop and Play N Trade only from the consumer point of view are a bit of a one-sided look at things.

These threads that pop up are most certainly one sided and very biased in nature. I sometimes think people put these unattainable expectations on game store employees where they should know everything about everything in terms of games. Having been in gaming retail for over 10 years, I can tell you that while I knew far more than the average employee, I barely scratched the surface of everything there was to know.

I'm sure you won't find many GameStop employees extolling the virtues of what a casual/easy/stress-free job they have.

The job itself wasn't hard at all, it was a combination of various other factors that made things annoying and stressful (the bulk coming from stupid mandates by corporate and the rest from the archetype customer base listed above). I imagine most employees don't post because any commentary on their part about the company, regardless of slamming or in the company's defense, has a potential negative effect on their employment. I know that GS does at times monitor the internet for anti-company rhetoric.

I'm not going to pretend I'm still an active member of any gaming scene or that the medium still interests me the way it once did, but I'd be remiss if I didn't share this gem...
I loved funcoland back from 2000-2003ish. During that time I enjoyed browsing their NES and SNES collection, looking for hidden gems and talking to a mostly knowledgeable staff of 20 or 20-somethings about games. I noticed that when Gamestop bought out funco and EB, the employees got much younger, and the stores mantra seemed to shift to pre-orders and edge cards. This was a business decision and Gamestop is a business, so that was fine with me. Anyway, around the time Wind-Waker was released, I happened to be in line behind a mother and her young son. The clerk was delivering the pitch of their reward card and touting the free subscription to game informer. The Mom seemed hesitant and asked if it had anything to do with Wind-waker. The clerk than responded with "This magazine will teach you all the codes in wind-waker as well as how to beat the game." At this point I just smiled thinking how ridiculous the whole thing sounded when I then overheard the employee say "you wont be able to beat the game without this."

It was at that point I realized that gamestop was now no longer any different from a used-car dealership filled with creepy salespeople who would lie to their mother if it made them a buck.

Sorry for the novel up there, but that story has always stuck with me, and is the chief reason why I've entered a gamestop maybe three times in the past seven years.

Post like these always grind my gears a bit because I can't fathom how people could look back at Funcoland with any kind of fondness. It's like every time I see a post like this, I imagine the person typing it has super thick rose colored goggles on. I remember all too well the two years I worked for Funcoland and mostly hating having to deal with trying to peddle $15 dollar cleaning kits on people, pushing the Game Informer magazine all the time, and having to constantly explain why we had cases on the wall for games we didn't have in stock.

When Gamestop first started up, I didn't have to deal with ANY of that nonsense and it was GREAT. When I jumped ship from Funcoland to GS, it felt like a liberation of sorts. I can assure you, no one was more distraught to hear about the Funco/GS merger than I was because I KNEW it wouldn't be long before a lot of that suggestive selling nonsense would get incorporated into GS...and sure enough, it did . I held on for as long as I did because for the bulk of the years I worked for GS, I was a part-timer and enjoyed the discount (which when I first started was FAR superior to the joke discount I got at Funco) and being around games. I always did good enough in sales to be kept on after a good 20 or so different store managers (the fact I worked my butt off and never had to be told what to do helped as well).

Obviously, I never really got to experience Funco as a customer. When they moved into the area, I was the 2nd non-manager employee hired (5th employee hired overall) so I there right at the beginning. I've no doubt there was a sense of joy and wonderment to be had as a customer, but as an employee I rarely felt it. I guess what irks me the most is a lot of what I see people bitching and venting about with Gamestop originated with Funcoland and that GS was essentially hijacked and morphed from used to be a really cool place to the insidious creature that exists today.

[TonyTheTiger]

There's a big difference between "verbal assault" and wanting to get your moneys worth. When you say you want a sealed copy, they roll their eyes and speak in a sarcastic tone, and act like they're doing you a favor by taking your money, there's no excuse for that anywhere. I've worked in retail before and it wasn't tolerated. But it's fine, they're the next blockbuster video, it's only a matter of time.

If they're rude for whatever reason that's one thing. I've never personally experienced anything of the sort with staff being rude to me simply for declining a purchase. Less work for them.

But the point is that regardless of whatever the store policy is, you're either going to buy the game or not. If you want to pretend the store copy isn't really there and if they're out of shrinkwrapped copies then they're effectively sold out of the game so be it. Call people out for being rude if that's what they're being but other than that nobody deserves a lecture.

I'm going to go out on a limb here based on my own personal experiences and seeing lots of things as a third party observer. I'm not pointing any fingers at anybody specific but I'm going to guess that if somebody frequently gets treated rudely by a store's staff they're probably doing something to provoke it.

[Lanzo]

I like gamestop but some of the things they do are just silly. Used games with generic cases and stickers piss me off. Especially the one time they took the time to remove the artwork and apply the sticker directly on the artwork then slip it back in the plastic giving you know way to remove the sticker without ruining it. I also wish they would keep more in stock because 90% of the time I'm buying the last copy and get stuck with the opened ones and I don't have the balls to say no thanks.

On the other side though, I have worked in a grocery store for 7 years and people do wear on your soul. I get mad when someone asks where something is and I answer them with "That's in isle 6". The customer then looks at me baffled because they are so oblivious they didn't know the isles were numbered by giant hanging signs.