GameStop Apologizes for Deus Ex Coupon Kerfuffle

[Nyce1]

So essentially the 50$ gift card is being packaged with the buy 2 get 1 free coupon to focus the gift card to be used on their used games which cost them pretty much nothing due to their horrid trade in prices. Their business is in used games giving a away a few of those does not affect their bottom line. This is a pathetic attempt to say sorry and they are only doing this cause they got caught.
As a former store manager I am glad to be done with such an unethical company and its shameful business practices. Take your business to Best Buy and Amazon in my opinion. They at least have solid trade in prices and actually sales on games.

 

[Sean951]

All because OnLive and Squeenix were practicing underhanded buisness.

Kudos to GameStop for giving all this away when they shouldn't have to.

Bingo. The ever present irrational hatred of GameStop is shielding people from seeing that GS really went the extra mile for something that wasn't really their fault.

I hate GameStop for lying to me about the availability of SCII Collectors Edition. They said you had to pre-order it, but after I bought the regular copy and talked to my friends I found out that, nope, they just didn't have it and I should have tried another Best Buy. I have refused to shop there since.

 

[aashell13]

It's a generous offer; I kinda expect they'd do this all over again if they thought they wouldn't get caught; And it doesn't matter because I've never bought anything from them because they've always had a pretty limited PC selection.

 

[teisjm]

If i had been a costumer, the compensation would've made up for what i'd lost, and i'd be happy with it.
But still, it's PR stunt, the company is only hoping to clean it's name, and this wasn't some mistake, but deliberately trying to cheat people out of stuff, and tey wouldn't have offered shit, unless an outrage had been made.

 

[Grabbin Keelz]

Why I use Steam, reason number 23

 

[orangeapples]

The gamestop my friend works at is very good with the majority of their new stock especially PC. PC sales were pretty low at that store, so they just kept all of the new (unopened) PC stock in a rockband box (turned inside out) in the back. Their manager is a PC gamer, so when they don't have display boxes for PC games, he's buy his copy, take the contents out and leave the box on the shelf as the "bring this to register and they get the game" certificate. My friend said they didn't mess with the Onlive coupons. Their motto is that if something corporate is designed to help the gamers then they'll do it, but if it screws the gamers they ignore it. Not like anyone from the head office is sitting in the back room making sure they are doing as told.

They do however do the whole opening new console games putting them is CD sleeves and marking them as new. That's something they cannot control.

Small stuff like this though, People get their OnLive coupon AND get the special offers.

 

[Ghengis John]

neither do i it was a great business decision why would they help their competition their only mistake was underestimating how much people love free stuff. now that they are giving people even more free stuff then they would have gotten be4 i dont think many people will care.

Cool story bro. Except they're not even in competition. They have a service that isn't even in beta yet. For that matter they had no say what was in those boxes and even less right to dissect them, even less less right as no other distributor did. This was not "free stuff" but something that the customer payed for and was entitled to. Once again you seemed to have not had a problem with what they did in the first place, for you there's nothing to forgive. You frankly seem to enjoy being seen as livestock to be sheared at your master's whim and that's fine for you. So far as I care however trying to make amends simply because you got caught doesn't make up for misdeeds. If anything they might be trying to protect themselves from a class action suit. I'll take the money honestly but I'm going to shop elsewhere whenever possible from here on.

It's not even like I hate the folks at my local gamestop. They organized a great little midnight release all on their own for LA Noir. However they still complied with this order and lied to my brother's face when he went to pick this game up (not once but three times). I can't forgive that so easily. It's not like I "trust" any retailer per se, but I specifically know that I can't trust them now. And I find the notion that I would be bought off for 50 dollars offensive. For that matter a forced apology is not an apology. What I would have valued more than the "free stuff" I "would have got be4" would have been to be treated fairly and honestly. Does that make any sense to you? It's not about the "stuff" it's about the principal. To quote my friend Mr Jensen, "the difference is integrity".

 

[UltimatheChosen]

While this is a big thing for Gamestop because they ARE Gamestop,for any other person,place or thing in the gaming industry,this is a poultry amount of an apology. PSN going down didn't cost you any money,but you got 4 free games (More if you have accounts in other parts of the world) free trials of Music Unlimited and PS Plus,and a bunch of shit for PS Home (If you use it)

God only knows what Valve would do if they had to do something like this,maybe give everyone effected 1,000 dollars and a blowjob.

PSN going down was a lot more inconvenient than losing a coupon for Onlive.

Gamestop definitely could have handled this better from the start, but I think this is a reasonable way to make up for it.

 

[nebtheslayer95]

I think that the real problem is people trusting gamestop in the first place. cmon people, they always try to screw us, they just arent always found out.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

They might, Andy. That is, if anyone actually shops there any more.

 

[Sjakie]

with thanks to Epic battleaxe news:

The mea culpa email to customers reads as follows:

Dear GameStop customer,

Earlier this week, GameStop removed a competitor?s coupon from standard edition PC versions of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, a recent release by Square Enix. We were not aware that the product box would contain this competitor?s offer. We regret the events surrounding this title release and that our customers were put in the middle of this issue between GameStop and Square Enix, the publisher of this game. And for this, we are truly sorry.

For your inconvenience, we would like to offer you a free $50 GameStop gift card and a Buy 2 Get 1 Free pre-owned purchase. We want to earn back your trust and confidence in the GameStop experience. Please bring in this email and your store receipt or order confirmation from GameStop.com and present it to a Game Advisor.

Sincerely,
Paul Raines
CEO, GameStop

ARE YOU F*&#@! KIDDING ME!!!!1!

"We were not aware that the product box would contain this competitor?s offer."

Yeah right, you pulled the 'competitor's offer' out of the box, BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS THERE...

Gamestop is doomed if that idiot runs the place.

 

[Laxman9292]

Well, I still think ripping open boxes is a dick move, but this is a damn better apology than Sony and their kerfuffle. (OMIGOSH, kerfuffle is a real word!)

How? Sony gave you two free games. Sony did their best to own up to their problem and I think that if you are absolving Gamestop then you need to forgive Sony because while Sony's mistake was an attack (that they weren't prepared for admittedly), GameStop's was just because of their dumb idea.

 

[EvolutionKills]

The $50 gift card is nice, but considering you can't sell used PC games the buy 2 used get one free deal is pretty hilarious.

Agreed, a deal on used games doesn't do much for PC gamers...

 

[Waaghpowa]

Also, my copy came with an OnLive coupon in it. I wonder if I can still get this deal?

You can, but I personally think Onlive and game streaming alike is a steaming pile of crap.

OT: They have not won back, I avoid purchasing games from EB/Gamestop whenever and wherever possible. Especially since I live in Canada, and the sales tax is 13%. Steam doesn't charge me tax, so that wins.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

How can giving a PC gamer 1 USED copy of a CONSOLE game for free solve anything?

First of all, you have to buy 2 games, to get 1 game for free. Secondly, it's a used game, so it's for consoles. If someone bought the game for a PC, he has a fucking PC, you don't know if he has a console. If he wanted a game for a console, he would have bought one. And NO, you can't assume every gamer has a console siting in his room. Not everyone has enough cash to buy a PC and some consoles (well, maybe Wii but still).
Third, it's a coupon for Gamestop. It forces you to buy there. No thanks.

All in all, I'm still disappointed. They didn't do anything to gain anyone's loyalty back. but than again, who was loyal to them before that? At least what I got from the net, most people hated them.

EDIT:
Also, please don't compare this with Sony. Please. The problem with Sony was caused by external factors. Sony tried their best to start up PSN asap. Yes, there were some problems, but Sony didn't cause the PSN to crash. Also, Sony gave games for the console you actually own. Gamestop caused this problem and gives you something you won't even be able to use.

 

[Andrew_C]

EDIT:
Also, please don't compare this with Sony. Please. The problem with Sony was caused by external factors. Sony tried their best to start up PSN asap. Yes, there were some problems, but Sony didn't cause the PSN to crash. Also, Sony gave games for the console you actually own. Gamestop caused this problem and gives you something you won't even be able to use.

That is BS and you know it. The Sony hacks were possible because Sony didn't give a damn about security and were running ancient unpatched software with known security flaws on their servers AND kept sensitive customer data unencrypted on a public-facing server.

 

[MorganL4]

personally I don't shop at at game stop anymore ( not because of this) Last game I bought there was Assassin's Creed 2 since then I have found a local game store with a much friendlier business model.

 

[tsb247]

From what I have seen, it sounds like a simple case of, "Oops, they discovered our crooked business practices. Quick! Do something nice that will make them forget!"

I will not be so quick to forgive. I've been burned by gamestop before, and when I heard about this incident, I wasn't really all that surprised. If I had fallen for this little stunt, the pre-owned game deal would have been useless to me becuase I am exclusively a PC gamer. The $50 gift card would have been nice, but it certainly would not have made me forget what they did. Either way... Gamestop = FAIL.