GameStop Responds to "GTA V Midnight Release Video" Controversy

[bdcjacko]

As someone who has worked in a customer service field, I am reminded of an old saying that only gets truer by the day, "the customer is always an asshole."

 

[Ragsnstitches]

When stupid collides only stupid remains. The guy could have been less of a contentious jerk, and the gal could have kept her frustration to herself until closing hours.

If she gets fired that's a massive overreaction. Reprimanded sure, maybe a few days suspension with no pay or a written apology.

The customer doesn't deserve an apology but this is typical corporate rhetoric to avoid negative fallout.

The people who recorded and uploaded the "confrontation" need to get a life.

 

[SwagLordYoloson]

I don't get the issue, the guy is acting like a ****. Why does gamestop care? she handled it better than most would of.

 

[gyroscopeboy]

That guy was a fucking passive - aggressive ****. Someone in the line should have told him to hurry the fuck up.
Entitled fuckwads like that piss me off, if I ever caught myself acting like a douche like that, I would want alternative me to punch myself in the face.

 

[Something Amyss]

While I do agreed that is unprofessional of her (I work in retail which I do value customer satifaction alot even when the customer is a jerk) but how can you NOT have a valid ID on you if you were going to buy a age required proof product?

The previous GTA release didn't have this problem. While that was like, a million years ago and policies change, I've seen several people complaining about this online because it wasn't previously necessary.

Granted, nobody I've read aboot threw a fit or had their private info threatened....

It's sad that employee will probably be fired over his tantrum. Hope that game is worth messing up someones life.

It's GTA V. The greatest game ever[footnote]for a week or two[/footnote]! People have gotten stabbed for it[footnote]If you count someone being robbed who had the game on him[/footnote]. Of course it's worth merely ruining a job[footnote]It isn't, really[/footnote].

I would hope GameStop is smart enough to chalk this one up to frustration, but regardless of his annoyance, she should not have said what she said. Asking him to leave, explaining they have policy, that is one thing. "How about I give everyone you annoyed your email address..." Yeah that is not something I would want, would you?

Before the video went viral, I'd have put better odds on her keeping her job. That's the problem when something gets so much more attention than it deserves.

Unless she has a history of this, "don't do it again" should suffice. We all have bad days, and considering she's working at GameStop I'd say she's been punished enough.

But again, internet hype machine.

With the Fox News Network attempting to track and monitor every person who buys and plays Grand Theft Auto V, that customer had every reason to be concerned about the security of his personal information.

But it's a private company doing it. And if there's one thing I've learned from Fox News[footnote]aside from "yelling means winning!"[/footnote] it's that it's completely different when a private company does it[footnote]Also, that you can be a Muslim, a Satanist, and an Atheist all at once. God, those people must be tired[/footnote].

douchebag gets blasted on the web for being a douche?

seems like that'll knock him down a peg or two.

Depends on the outcome. I mean, seriously, if she gets fired, it'll likely reaffirm him.

 

[sleeky01]

What strikes me the most about this "incident" is that the customer is worried that his personal info not be shared and now he has his unwanted 15 min of fame.

Oh, but we don't actually know his name or anything.....give it a couple of days.

 

[WittyInfidel]

She distributed no personal information whatsoever to anyone, only made a statement that could be equally validly interpreted as a biting final jab or a threat. The question then becomes, is threatening to violate privacy laws a legal offense?

I would imagine it is, but if it does end up going to court, the final verdict would very much come down to who has the better lawyer.

This falls easily under the heading of Criminal Harassment. Criminal harassment is defined as behavior that the harasser knows would cause undue fear, intimidation or persecution, and adversely affects the victim?s safety and security. A victim may receive threatening or obscene phone calls, unwanted gifts, notes and text messages, or observe the harasser loitering outside home or work. Depending on the actions a perpetrator commits, criminal harassment can bring gross misdemeanor or felony charges.

This is usually handled at the state level, with laws varying from state-to-state. As I am unaware of which state this took place in, I cannot go into further depth.

Here is an example from Massachusets GeneralLaws/PartIV/TitleI/Chapter265/Section43A:
Section 43A. (a) Whoever willfully and maliciously engages in a knowing pattern of conduct or series of acts directed at a specific person, which seriously alarms that person and would cause a reasonable person to suffer substantial emotional distress, shall be guilty of the crime of criminal harassment and shall be punished by imprisonment in a house of correction for not more than 21/2 years or by a fine of not more than $1,000, or by both such fine and imprisonment. The conduct or acts described in this paragraph shall include, but not be limited to, conduct or acts conducted by mail or by use of a telephonic or telecommunication device or electronic communication device including, but not limited to, any device that transfers signs, signals, writing, images, sounds, data or intelligence of any nature transmitted in whole or in part by a wire, radio, electromagnetic, photo-electronic or photo-optical system, including, but not limited to, electronic mail, internet communications, instant messages or facsimile communications.

(b) Whoever, after having been convicted of the crime of criminal harassment, commits a second or subsequent such crime, or whoever commits the crime of criminal harassment having previously been convicted of a violation of section 43, shall be punished by imprisonment in a house of correction for not more than two and one-half years or by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than ten years.

 

[Dragonbums]

He literally could of just shown his ID and get it over with.
A arguably 10 minute incident could of been reduced to 5 seconds.

The length people will go to to cause a ruckus is ridiculous.

On the off hand though, she didn't have to say that specifically. But still. All could've been avoided with a quick check of an ID.

Now i firmly agree with this. It is not hard to pull out your ID and show it to someone... HOWEVER the moment she made that threat, joking or not, she had crossed the line. I have no sympathy towards the customer, there is no reason to get upset over something so trivial, but she should not have said a single thing. If she gets fired for it, I'm in complete support of that decision.


You can't place all the blame on the customer, he may have started a scene, but he WAS leaving, but she had ot make a comment, honestly, shes to blame for that part.

True.
I do wish however, the Facebook and to extension the Escapist posted the full uncut version. You can tell it was cropped for a short attention span audience.
Notice how many of the other customers were throwing insults his way.
It's clear that the was causing a lot big of a ruckus than the video lets on.

At the end of the day, I don't want her fired at all. This supposedly went on for a full 10 minutes. At that point, I would've called security and he could be led out the door. However this is Gamestop. Security doesn't exist there.

Do you have a link to the whole video? I tried searching and all I got was the edited version. I don't know who originally posted the video and what the purpose behind the editing was. It does show the manager in a bad light, because her job as a manager is to defuse a situation, not escalate it. From what I can see she didn't do her job, so there should be some consequence for that. What that should be I can't say, but firing isn't out of the question, what happens should take into account past performance. What's her history with the company? It obvious that she let the crowd's comments encourage her to be a bit flippant, which is understandable but again isn't professional or proper behaviour for a manager.

Don't think I don't sympathize with her, I do. I've worked in retail most of my life. I currently have a job in the produce department in a supermarket, and I've had customers freak on me for the most stupid and silliest reasons. I had a women come in and freak because the type of bag she liked was 6 feet from the produce she wanted. When I explained that it was designed by people at head office, and we couldn't just change it because of a customer so she needed to put a comment card in, she refused and started talking about a "male conspiracy". I had another women spend a entire conversation yelling at me about the fact that our peaches weren't local. I mentioned that we would have local, they were just late this year and she stormed off. Other customers were commenting about how it wasn't my fault and she over heard came back and apologized, but was still yelling as she did it. Or a guy freaked because we didn't have "buttermilk" squash. When he first calmly asked I explained that I had never heard of that type of squash and it might be butternut he was looking for but we were out. I explained this a couple of times and thought he understood so I went back to what I was doing. 30 seconds later he's in my face yelling about how I'm lousy at service because I won't help him find his "buttermilk" squash.
I've got a ton more, but as you can see I more than understand what she was dealing with.

There are a lot of people who see anyone in retail as either a lesser being or a roadblock to their getting what they think they deserve as a customer. But this case has one additional fact that changes things, she's a manager. She sets the tone for the entire staff. While she did her best keeping her cool with a very difficult customer and I commend her for that, she let the crowd dictate her behaviour and paid for it. And that's not proper behaviour for a manager. If she'd been a clerk she might have more wiggle room. But she isn't and will have to face whatever happens because of it. It's sad really that ahole customers have that much power, but that's the way it is and the world we live in.

"The abridged version is that a customer was apparently angry that the store manager insisted on seeing photo identification before letting him pick up his Grand Theft Auto V preorder,"

Sadly I do not have a link to the original video. However something that is abridged means that it was edited out to be much shorter than the original clip.
I guess my only assumption is that said video is either lost in the sea of the abridged one, or the original uploader has kept the full video to themselves.

 

[makano]

I like all the white Knights jumping on him calling him a "virgin" nerd etc.
Face facts if a man threatened to give out your personal information he would be in the jail house as fast as you could get him there.

She broke a law and a professional standard NEVER GIVE OUT CUSTOMER PERSONAL DATA or even think about it.
It could lead to people losing there life's.

Remember some people only need your name and location to find you

I am speaking as a data protection specialist.

If you think i am over reacting look up what 4chan(plus a few other nasty people) can do with a few details.

 

[SadisticFire]

You worked many retail jobs? I've done exactly as you described and security and the police had to be called to get rid of the person.

Well the thing is, he WAS leaving, but then the employee made a one off about giving out his personal information. Email and phone number it seems like, which made him come back. If she just stayed quiet, and let him leave, that entire situation would've been avoided. I would be fucking pissed if they threatened to give out any of my personal information, and might actually have a similar conversation if it's not as busy. Not to say the customer didn't act like an asshole, and that ID'ing doesn't seem ridiculous. Everyone in that video seemed stupid, and some of the customers, the video taker, the customer and employee.

 

[karloss01]

Being an employee in retail I can say they were both in the wrong. the customer should have his ID for it (everyone should have their ID on them at all times) and she shouldn't of lost her patience with him. I've had situations where people have tried to convince me to sell them beer or Cigs without an ID and they piss off the whole store (hence why the customers sided with the manager).

 

[skorpion352]

This is why we can't have nice things. No one in that video behaved the way they should have. The original customer shouldn't have kicked up such a fuss over being asked for ID, by the store employee shouldn't have acted the way she did. And I get the feeling that the other customers supporting her might not have been on her side if it was a male employee that had said that. The comments from the other customers in the video are the sort of thing you would expect idiots to say on the internet. The whole video is an example of why gamers have such a bad reputation, acting like a bunch of children.

 

[RicoADF]

This didn't happen in Australia.

I know, but Americans always impose their values and laws onto articles about Australia, just returning the favor. Not fun is it

 

[Bat Vader]

If I was this woman I would have just refunded him the money, told him to buy the game somewhere else, and banned him from the store. Employees should not have to deal with abusive and/or rude customers.

 

[verdant monkai]

One of those situations where both of the people look like assholes.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

douchebag gets blasted on the web for being a douche?

seems like that'll knock him down a peg or two.

Depends on the outcome. I mean, seriously, if she gets fired, it'll likely reaffirm him.

i hope she doesn't get fired, but as you mentioned this has gone viral so the decision is going to make a shit storm one way or the other probably, but it'll still give him something to think about next time he wants to spout off to someone.

just a general statement (not aimed at you zachary), but being nice (especially to customer service/retail people) is only a win-win scenario, hell most times being nice gets you your game quicker (and that is being judged on other products as well, i've gotten stuff pulled out of the backlog for me from being nice and understanding with staff at stores)

oh well, he got his game, and they got their money, this should just blow over and be a lesson to anyone about watching their mouth in public.

 

[VanQ]

Why do people react so badly to being carded? I know you don't look younger than 18, I also know that it's a legal requirement that you show ID. You know damn well all it takes is 5 seconds to reach into your pocket and present said ID, which you probably keep in your wallet with the card/cash you used to purchase the game.

Fuck you for making a hassle over something trivial, lone customer. You're the scourge of the retail world and the reason it sucks so hard to work in retail. I don't care if you've had a bad day, I had one too. But I smile and give you your goods anyway, it's not hard for you to just show your ID, you don't even have to smile.

I don't think the Manager here acted professional. But that guy is the worst kind of douchebag. He deserves the humiliation he received.

Spoiler

Can you tell I used to work in and hate retail? Fuck retail.

 

[Haakmed]

Loled at that guy. Personally since he was making a scene, and disrupting customers, I personally would have carded him and refunded him his preorder money and sent him on his way. No need to be disruptive over something so simple as "These people want to see my ID to prove I am who I am?!"