GameStop and their policies

[0ptional]

This only happens when they are down to the last copy. Last copy with a display box on the floor. Now, don't tell me all they carry are the last copy of all games.

Ya know, I don't think it would be such a big deal if they had stock of games that werent released within the last 2-3 months at all times. They seem to do this a lot for having any sort of stock at all.

I stick with the bigger retailers for new games anyway, they usually have deals on the first day, like I've said in my earlier posts.

 

[Shark-MegaByte]

I don't care what they're doing with the game before I get it - as long as I get everything I pay for, and they are ready to properly help me if I don't.

If they're messing with opened media before selling it to me, then they'd better be prepared to make me happy if I get home and find a scratched disc, used key #, or missing inserts.

 

[AceTKK]

For everybody in this thread that buys from EB/Gamestop, why not buy your games from BB, CC, Target, Walmart, etc.? They usually get games the same time as EB/Gamestop and you don't have to deal with their reserve list BS.

I've always wondered that too. Why pay more and deal with pushy salesmen ("Buy this strategy guide! Preorder the sequel which will be out in 2 years!") instead of just picking your game up off the shelf at Wal-Mart or BB? I guess many parts of the country where real estate is super expensive might not have big retail stores.

 

[swatbat]

For everybody in this thread that buys from EB/Gamestop, why not buy your games from BB, CC, Target, Walmart, etc.? They usually get games the same time as EB/Gamestop and you don't have to deal with their reserve list BS.

I've always wondered that too. Why pay more and deal with pushy salesmen ("Buy this strategy guide! Preorder the sequel which will be out in 2 years!") instead of just picking your game up off the shelf at Wal-Mart or BB? I guess many parts of the country where real estate is super expensive might not have big retail stores.

Unless BB or CC has a sale they are the same price as them. EB also seems to put the games out before anyone elce in my area besides walmart which I would rather not drive to. I've never had the ebs in my area give me a used game in place of a new one so untill they do I'm not too worried about it. Besides there are 2 of them less then 5 minutes from my house. Good to pickup something quick.

 

[joemama]

Well...first of all (and I'm sure others have stated this..I didn't read the entire thread ) I would never buy a "new" game from Gamestop because there are less expensive alternatives. Even their used games are sometimes overpriced...especially for popular titles. All in all it is usually best to just avoid Gamestop unless they have something you can't find elsewhere or the best price.

 

[Slartibartfast]

Well...first of all (and I'm sure others have stated this..I didn't read the entire thread ) I would never buy a "new" game from Gamestop because there are less expensive alternatives. Even their used games are sometimes overpriced...especially for popular titles. All in all it is usually best to just avoid Gamestop unless they have something you can't find elsewhere or the best price.

Case in point: I just bought a new copy of the original Disgaea off of www.gamequestdirect.com for $30. My local gamestop has a used copy for $40

 

[0ptional]

Case in point: I just bought a new copy of the original Disgaea off of www.gamequestdirect.com for $30. My local gamestop has a used copy for $40

$40? Lucky... mine is a very price gouged $65... no I'm not kidding. I have no idea how this game is in such high demand.

 

[Kahnvex]

I made the decision to never shop there again after they wouldn't stop pushing an opened, stickered, beat-up "new" copy of animal crossing on me during Christmas. The case was dirty and nasty, had 3 layers of price tags on it.

It wasnt that they offered me the opened copy as nwe, it was the fact that after I found out they didn't have a new shrinkwrapped copy, and I said "No" they tried to force it on me, were assholes about it, and didn't stop until I left.

3 people tried 5 different times to make me feel dumb about it while I continued to look for something else, which totally pissed me off.

Never shopping there again

 

[Cantonious]

Well, reading through this reminded me of a time at EB, and being as they're the "same" now (they weren't when it happened) it's no surprise. I went in and purchased a new game (can't remember which, was 3 years ago) and paid and everything, headed out and back to my apartment. When I made it back, I opened up my new toy and low and behold, no game disc. Everything was in there except for the game disc. It was one of those open box "new" items. It was bizarre. I took it back and told them, and they argued for a little bit, but finally they came around.

 

[Cantonious]

20% off the players guide isn't a deal.

Ya know, I don't think it would be such a big deal if they had stock of games that werent released within the last 2-3 months at all times. They seem to do this a lot for having any sort of stock at all.

I stick with the bigger retailers for new games anyway, they usually have deals on the first day, like I've said in my earlier posts.

 

[0ptional]

20% off the players guide isn't a deal.

Lol, it depends on the game and where you go, sometimes they're 39.99 on the first day, especially larger titles, like FFXII had that deal.

I don't use player's guides, what a waste of a good gameplay experience.

Right and Kameo used at GameStop was like 41.99 or the usual 49.99 new, so I said fuck that and went to Toys R Us who had it for 39.99. Bigger retailers can have sales like that, and often do.

 

[Worldhammer]

If it is supposed to be new, then it should be unopened by anyone but the customer. Don't see what's hard to figure out about this one. Hell if you cant follow that, then it seems likely that you benefit in some way from that bullshit or just like to play devil's advocate and disagree with people. Again and again I see it in forums, people trenchantly defending their right to be screwed around. Amazing.


It's ok because of cars? How about condoms?

 

[nobody_here]

If it is supposed to be new, then it should be unopened by anyone but the customer. Don't see what's hard to figure out about this one. Hell if you cant follow that, then it seems likely that you benefit in some way from that bullshit or just like to play devil's advocate and disagree with people. Again and again I see it in forums, people trenchantly defending their right to be screwed around. Amazing.


It's ok because of cars? How about condoms?

well, if the damn game plays exactly like it should, there's really nothing else that matters to me, either it works or it doesnt, funny how alot of people here insisting on them opening the shrinkwrap would likely have no problem dropping a backup copy into their console if they could get one easily and would play it right along....just like a new copy, but somehow an unsealed copy which plays the exact same is "tarnished"

 

[0ptional]

well, if the damn game plays exactly like it should, there's really nothing else that matters to me, either it works or it doesnt, funny how alot of people here insisting on them opening the shrinkwrap would likely have no problem dropping a backup copy into their console if they could get one easily and would play it right along....just like a new copy, but somehow an unsealed copy which plays the exact same is "tarnished"

I can safely say I do not pirate games, but thanks for incriminating the whole thread.

 

[Kahnvex]

Well first of all in my case, it's the principle of the thing. When you pay for something new, it should be new, and thats that. If used games play the exact same as new ones, why don't they charge new price for them. If an employee takes the game home, leafs through the instruction book, and touches the disc, then its not a new game anymore.

It's used. What if he reads the instruction book on the toilet? Is it still new then? Do you think the mattress company people have sex testers that have sex on the new mattresses to see if they'll hold up to stringent quality standards before selling them as new? Would you be cool with that if they did? Even if you didn't know?

Theres an invisible threshold of new that is violated in subtle ways. If the company wants to give the employees a perk thats great, the games should go in the used bin when they are all done.

 

[Marcdaddy]

I went to Gamestop and bought ADVANCE WARS for my DS Lite, it was new sold as new, i got home and started reading the manuel and someone named Jeff made Notes in it I then loaded up the game and it had saved games on it allready. I called the store and said that the copy i got has been obviously used and they told me to come back to the store, I showed the store manager and he assured me that somehow it was a accident which i said no problem just give me a new game. Then after about 5 mins he comes back to the desk and says, Im sorry this was our last copy, which now makes sense it was a opened game which they resealed and sold as new. Those MFERS im not gonna buy anything else from that friggen place.

 

[roaf85]

Yes another rant. 2 rants since I have been at work. Anyways here is my toughts on it:

Preorder:

Complete bullshit. Very little emphasis on preselling. The goal of preselling is just a chart to say hey, lets upsell this and this. For example lets say Halo 2 is release, well you can bet your ballsack that not only is the vendor going to pay for that game to be on the selves, but also for the right to have that game by the door, posters in the windows etc. and finally they are going to ship the game guides, figures whatever. Now it is up to employees to try to sell things with those games.

The only thing that was tracked for preorders was the bigger games. Halo etc. However when I worked there our GM did not track this as much as say a consistent units per transaction. Meaning there was a greater emphasis on making sure we sold a number of those "Edge Membership Cards" each week.

My coworker was banned from preordering games. He would shift his preroders from games to games at a time. For instance he would have 100 dollars in the system across 20 games. He liked to preorder games. If he was pressed for cash he would cancel preorders to pay for that one preordered game that came out. Later he would repreorder the games.

I did not understand why our manager was so upset. He was basically giving money to the company to count as revenue vs him holding it in his pocket. Prefectly legal and it because of his ban he was force to quit buying games.

So interesting observation. My final thoughts does the preordering work? I suppose, they do it to try to get guarenteed sales and an image of the amount of people in a day they can upsell to. However, it is not tracked as highly as warrenties and magazine subscriptions when I was an employee.

New Games unwrapped:

We were only allowed to check out 1 used game per time, but even then we were to make up our own system of checking out games (excel spreadsheet). There was nothing in the system promoting checking out of games by the employee. If it was done it was not a policy.

Our manager eventually barred us checking out used games after I discovered a missing Spiderman 2 that was checked out by an employee, but never referenced on the sheet. I applaud his decision to do this since looking for the game cost the company time and a eventual sale since the customer had to wait for me to find a game that was suppose to be in stock.

The policy for research purposes was handled by the 3 big wigs themselves, Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft. This was in the form of online quizzes and product handouts. Managers were to encourage employees to access these resources. It was not hard with Microsoft. Free games, operating systems, t shirts, mugs etc for around 30 minutes of your time filling out quizzes. Microsoft marketing is awesome. If there is one company in the video game world that values relationships it is Microsoft. Nintendo is more towards advertising.

Now for the unwrapped games. Does it suck? yes I thought it did. It confers with policies for the reasons stated in this topic. I will add one thing though. The reason why the last copy on the selves is gutted is because security concerns of the business. For instance at most EBgames stores unless it is well established and full of sales usually has to deal with inital capital costs and as an alternate door systems to deter theft are not used in all stores.

Managers may tell customers we want to put an actual boxed product our there so customres can see, but the underlying and measureable cost is loss/prevention.

If there was anti theft systems in every EB and Gamestop I would think there would not be this problem.

 

[B. W.]

Managers may tell customers we want to put an actual boxed product our there so customres can see, but the underlying and measureable cost is loss/prevention.

While that is true, I still don't see why GameStop stores couldn't have more empty boxes on display (cases that read "FOR DISPLAY PURPOSES ONLY"). Even though there are constraints, GameStop as a company has many other options (putting actual copies on store shelves in hard cases similar to the way Best Buy stores their games or actually providing decent security).

 

[nobody_here]

I can safely say I do not pirate games, but thanks for incriminating the whole thread.

whatever dude, relax, i did no such thing, but i bet many here would have to admit to it if they were honest with themselves

 

[Godofdestrcution]

People still buy from gamestopopoly?

Is it the high prices that draw you back?

The scratched games on used games?

The employees?

Or just the overall bad service?

 

[movax]

People still buy from gamestopopoly?

Local people that trade in rare games that are then sold cheaply without their value ever been recogonized.

Getting black-label copies of games cheaply, used or new. Ace Combat 5 brand spankin' new, non-GH for $15 is pretty good. I'm a collecting whore, I admit.

Being able to stock up on a shitload of collectable/damn good RPGs for ~$200 = mega-win. Of course, YMMV with your local one. Mine near home is just staffed by damn good people...reminds me of the Funcoland of yesterday.

 

[UnlimitedMP]

I was thinking "If they already open it, why don't I just buy it used for cheaper?" then I thought "Wait, that's where all their profit is... hm."

 

[grayfx]

I stopped shopping at Gamestop a while back, when Wind Waker came out actually. I had to stand in line for like 15 mins. waiting to pick up my pre-order for Wind Waker. Well, I was kinda doin the pee-pee dance and it wasn't looking good. So i get up to the counter and this nerdy clerk there starts trying to push the game guide on me. I refuse like 50 times, while doing the pee-pee dance. I start to get a little irate and he actually says he will help me pay for the guide....he needs only 1 more sell to get some sort of commision. When i refuse that, he gets mad and tells me that "I will just be like all the other dumbass gamers out there, play the game for 1 week and then bring it back because I can't beat it." Needless to say, I flew off the handle and told him to give me the GD game before I pissed all over the carpet. That was my last time in a Gamestop or EB for that matter. Save yourself some trouble, and harrasment, buy new from Wal-mart and ebay the used games imo.

 

[SmillingMan]

I was an assistant manager for a local GameStop(had to resign due to wife having a baby). When I first started there as a grunt, the policy was that you could check-out a new game to try. It was to be returned in three days with no scratches or marks or else you had to buy it. Yes, it would be re-shrinked in the back and sold as new.

But a few years ago, there was a couple of lawsuits that was brought up against other companies that changed the way the industry did things. The new policy is that employees can only check-out used copies. No one, not even the manager, can check-out new copies.

As for opening at least one of them for a display copy is still done. But the game must go into a sleeve and locked away in the drawer. Once all the new untouched ones are sold, the opened one is then sold. I know it is not company policy per say to tell the buyer that it was opened but my store and a few others that I worked at when needed would tell and show the buyer the disk.

As for some of you saying to go buy your new games from one of the bigger stores, thats fine and yes you are right, most of the time they will have it cheaper the first week. They can do that because they are big. But the one thing that GameStop/EB has over the big department stores is the fact that you can reserve any game that is coming out. BB/CC and the others only let you reserver the big titles. So if you want to make sure you get a game that might have a limit production run(like discia) is to reserve it with GameStop/EB. There are a lot of games that can only be found either online or at a GameStop/EB because they a niche games.

GameStop makes very little from new games. They make most of their profit from addon sales and used games.

 

[roaf85]

I was an assistant manager for a local GameStop(had to resign due to wife having a baby). When I first started there as a grunt, the policy was that you could check-out a new game to try. It was to be returned in three days with no scratches or marks or else you had to buy it. Yes, it would be re-shrinked in the back and sold as new.

But a few years ago, there was a couple of lawsuits that was brought up against other companies that changed the way the industry did things. The new policy is that employees can only check-out used copies. No one, not even the manager, can check-out new copies.

As for opening at least one of them for a display copy is still done. But the game must go into a sleeve and locked away in the drawer. Once all the new untouched ones are sold, the opened one is then sold. I know it is not company policy per say to tell the buyer that it was opened but my store and a few others that I worked at when needed would tell and show the buyer the disk.

As for some of you saying to go buy your new games from one of the bigger stores, thats fine and yes you are right, most of the time they will have it cheaper the first week. They can do that because they are big. But the one thing that GameStop/EB has over the big department stores is the fact that you can reserve any game that is coming out. BB/CC and the others only let you reserver the big titles. So if you want to make sure you get a game that might have a limit production run(like discia) is to reserve it with GameStop/EB. There are a lot of games that can only be found either online or at a GameStop/EB because they a niche games.

GameStop makes very little from new games. They make most of their profit from addon sales and used games.

I know at Ebgames there was very little flexibility. One manager I that I worked with had a problem with my school schedule, while the manager before him encouraged schooling.

You said in your case you had to resign due to your wife having a baby? That is highly illegal and I would have brought a suit against the corporation. Most likely you could have got some arbitration settlement if you could prove it.

True Ebgames and and Gamstop get customers because of the niche titles, but honestly I think it is more from the relationships. You are a salesman and unlike walmart etc. you actually are encouraged to help people in a smaller store environment.

Many times people were repeat customers. I think a lot of people think that gamers do research and go to any store to buy a game. This is true gamers do this. However, many times if you are good you can get people to impulse buy based on their liking of SquareSoft titles.

If they like your suggestions many times they will come back to buy games from you.

 

[SmillingMan]

I know at Ebgames there was very little flexibility. One manager I that I worked with had a problem with my school schedule, while the manager before him encouraged schooling.

You said in your case you had to resign due to your wife having a baby? That is highly illegal and I would have brought a suit against the corporation. Most likely you could have got some arbitration settlement if you could prove it.

True Ebgames and and Gamstop get customers because of the niche titles, but honestly I think it is more from the relationships. You are a salesman and unlike walmart etc. you actually are encouraged to help people in a smaller store environment.

Many times people were repeat customers. I think a lot of people think that gamers do research and go to any store to buy a game. This is true gamers do this. However, many times if you are good you can get people to impulse buy based on their liking of SquareSoft titles.

If they like your suggestions many times they will come back to buy games from you.

No, I was not forced to quit...I did it of my own freewill My wife makes a lot more then I did at GameStop plus works off hours(12:30pm to 9pm). Corporate has a grid system for people to work which would not be a problem if I could just open and get out of there by 4pm but they rotate the management so one day you open, then next you close. Even if I could have only opened, daycare would have taken most of my paycheck. So my wife and I decided that I would resign so I could be the stay at home dad(AKA Mr Mom ).

As for you last part, that is VERY true. The one thing that we all tried to do is to get to know the customer. I was not a wrestling game fan at all so if someone came in for that type of game, I would flat out tell them I have no clue but would introduce them to another guy that worked their who was a big fan of wrestling and owned just about every wrestling game made since the Sega Genesis

Although the one thing that I did/do hate about GameStop, at least from the point of working their, is the numbers game. Depending on your level(manager through sales associate) you had to have so many reserves and addon sales(mainly Game Informer subs) per week. Miss the magic number the first time, get a warning. Second time you did not make the numbers, get written up(so many write ups and you would be fired). Third time you missed the numbers, you are let go for not performing. Some people are not good at sales, heck I am not and should have been fired early on but my manager knew I was a reliable person and did my best so he gave me a few of his numbers to cover me. The do or die attitude that corporate has ends up hurting them from time to time because good people get fired that way. I am a very talkative/open person so once I used to the job, I was able to get numbers without doing the pushy salesmen.