Gamestop, Store to store

[Rednog]

I've had pretty shitty experiences with Gamestop. The only good one I went to was/is out of my way but I was able to go to it for a while because it was on my way home for about 3-4 years. But I think they were good only because they were in such an obscure place and they didn't get much foot traffic so they were super desperate to please any customer that walked through the door.

I think on average the worst Gamestops tend to be the ones located inside malls, just because they get such a large amount of people they really don't care about you. The one experience that never made me go back to a gamestop and I'll probably never go back for the rest of my life was about 6 or so years ago. I went to a gamestop and I was buying a prepaid card and the guy looks at it and tells me "yea no I'm not going to ring something up for like $10, you're going to have to spend more." I look at him and I'm like wtf? I tell him that he can pretty much go fuck himself and I'll go buy the card somewhere else. At that point he tells me that if I don't buy something else he's going to keep the money and the card. I had to call the fucking cops to get my money back. And the sleazy fucker tried to convince them that I was crazy and had never given him any money. I'm so thankful that some random dude was in the back and corroborated my story. Seriously I don't understand how this kind of shit went down for a $10 card.

Edit: Also I've been a bit soured overall by the used game industry since I worked in an EB pre Gamestop buyout, it was a terrible job.

 

[LetalisK]

I've had mixed experiences, but the one closest to me now I've had nothing but good experiences with.

 

[DeimosMasque]

I love my Gamestop in West Palm Beach. The service is friendly, they always have what I need, give great advice on titles I want or they think I would like since they know my tastes, and they are only about a mile away and next to the McDonalds I always frequent so I never feel like I'm going out of my way when nuggets are so close.

wow i think i go to the same game stop small world. on the whole i like game stop i feel its good for the consumer. although since ive found steam ive cooled on them a bit but i still like them.

Over here in Tampa. I've never found a single Gamestop in the whole TBA that was bad. All of their employees are gamers. Not a single one forces the idea of used sales or pre-orders. Those concepts are brought up, but never forced on the consumer.

If fact, when one didn't have the game I was looking for they called the next nearest Gamestop and have them hold it for me. They even told me to hold on to my trade-ins until I got to the next store.

The staff is completely different from what I hear about hear on the Escapist. Apparently, outside of the Tampa/Orlando metroplex the Gamestops become evil people. They constantly ask about preorders and constantly ask if you have games to trade in.

They only time I felt forced into a preorder was when the cashier was an EXTREMELY hot girl in the Citrus Park Mall. And when I put down $10 for Mario Kart Wii. When I didn't get it, it was added back to my account and I used it to buy the Metroid Trilogy.

Overall, I don't get the Gamestop hate. I get that they give you too little for your trade-ins. I get that they charge too much for their used games. But honestly, they try to get gamers to get games they've never tried. They help parents by accepting returns they should do; and they inform to low information gamer about what is coming out.

How is any of that a bad thing?

 

[Iwata]

Oh, and that article The Escapist ran a few years back, 'COnfessions of a Gamestop Employee', that makes it sound like it's run by nazis and concentration camp guards?!

I was working at Gamestop at the time that was written. I showed it to my co-workers. We all laughed our asses off at just how WRONG everything was in comparison to our store.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

The gamestop I go to, a bunch of the workers are really nice and good for friendly chitchat. Then theres one cocksucker I can't stand because it's clear he doesn't want to be there. MY job is right next store so I'm in there like once a week, checking prices of things.

And it's like, hey, I understand it. But fuck that guy, I plain refuse to buy anything when he's on shift cause he constantly gives an attitude.

I wish I knew how Gamestop fluxiates its prices. One week Duke Nukem was 8 dollars, the next week it was 15 again. I'd try to see if I could get it for the older price but they wouldn't. How the hell do used game prices fluxiate so radically?

I got a worse story about Play N Trade though. So a while back I had sold my Wii to the place, bought Starcraft and put the rest on a reserve for Dead Rising 2.

Well Dead Rising 2's release comes and goes and they didn't get the game in. They say "Well we can give you your money back... oh wait it was store credit" and I go "So your telling me, I'm fucked and I got to wait?" "Yep."

Everyday I went in to check if it came. Every day they told me "It's coming tomorrow."

Finally, I got so fed up, I just bought it from gamestop and returned the copy I got from PNT to them. Never frequented that establishment again. Now they're out of business.

 

[TheWanderingFish]

I live of a town of about 20 000 people in Canada. Take from that what you will.

I have never had a bad experience at the EB Games (which is Gamestop) I go to. I know all the guys who work their, and they are all really cool, and they know their stuff which is perhaps even more important. What's more, you can get into a solid conversation about gaming with them.

I hear a lot of bad things from people about their experiences at Gamestop, but having never had one, it is slightly confusing. I suppose it makes a huge difference if you are in a city, or is there something else?

 

[Beffudled Sheep_v1legacy]

The gamestops by me are all great. Friendly staff, most of whom seem to be big into gaming.
Sometimes they try and get me to buy something way more expensive than what I want/need but they usually don't push after my first mentioning of "I'm not interested".
They managed to get me to purchase the sub to Game Informer and their pro card but I frequent the store enough that the discounts, rewards and better trade in prices offset the cost by quite a bit.

All in all I like them and have very little to complain about except for a seemingly decreasing selection variety.