These Gamestop Hate threads make me wonder...

[Shoggoth2588]

Are there any other major retailers you've had a really bad experience with or, another retailer you simply won't visit? As often as it takes flak from grass-root groups and certain news agencies. It hasn't gotten very much bad press recently but every November/ December you hear about people being robbed and/or trampled in the store or, in the parking lot.

As for me, I had a bad experience working at Best Buy. Looking back I guess it wasn't that terrible but at the time I couldn't stand it. I go to Best Buy but not the one I worked at out of embarrassment.

Anyway, what about you guys and gals?

 

[BlindTom]

What happened at Best Buy?

 

[gigastar]

It may be justified. The stuff i get from Gamestop (and subsidary brands) is considerably more expensive than other game retail stores, and Amazon.

And its not even worth bringing up thier 'store credit' policy.

 

[amppi1236]

There's this store that strikes intense fear in me. I can't remember the name, but every time I visited that place I got separated from my parents. (and as a 5 year old with a tendency to analyze every thing he sees, and the ability to figure out 19 ways to get killed in that situation... it was horrifying!) I also once accidentally got left there for some reason, and I have a intense fear of being left alone too. They got me later, but I'm still afraid of that store...

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Hey, look at that! Wal*Mart is being sued for discriminatory hiring apparently.

What happened at Best Buy?

My coworkers were a bunch of asses but the biggest thing was, despite me being assigned (officially) as a member of the stock team (as opposed to say, the cashiers or being assigned a specific department) I would often be sent out to 'sell'. I don't have a big problem with retail but I would be told to sell in departments I had no idea about. I was alright in the game section but, as I kept telling the management, I know nothing of phones and, little of MP3 players.

That's behind me though.

---

I was once at a J.C. Penny (clothes shop if you don't know, usually a 2-level place on an end of malls) anyway, my sister was a baby and we were leaving the mall. She leans over her stroller and head-dives onto the floor. I was about 8 or 9 at the time so I was expecting something similar to say, a pumpkin falling onto concrete (didn't want that to happen: I was kinda freaked out) Luckily she just ended up with a bump on her head and to this day (she's 16 now) I get to blame her dottiness on her head-injury.

It may be justified. The stuff i get from Gamestop (and subsidary brands) is considerably more expensive than other game retail stores, and Amazon.

And its not even worth bringing up thier 'store credit' policy.

I was just on Gamestop's, Powerup Rewards website. You get 10 points for every dollar you spend on new games and consoles. 20 points for every dollar you spend on pre-owned games, accessories and/or, consoles. Recently, the 'rewards' catalog began advertising this T-Shirt:

It's on the website for 11,450 points. After doing some math, you will have to spend $1,145 on new stuff before you can afford that particular reward ($572.50 pre-owned). Keeping with the Zelda theme, you'd have to buy 5 new Wii's and about 3 games (all new) for it to accumulate that amount of points. Even if you went the used route, you'd need to get 3 pre-owned Wii's to get close (the 4th would get you enough points). You could get similar (if not better) designed Zelda shirts elsewhere for less than $500. Hell, you could probably find some at a Five-Below (five-below being a store sells all of it's product for prices that don't go higher than $5)

Power to the Player...indeed

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

I generally dislike Gamestop a lot...

They're more expensive, the trade ins have a larger margin than most other game companies and often the staff seem pretty clueless.

I much prefer Game anyway...

 

[Veloxe]

I generally try to stay away from Wal-Mart when I can. It's just the other customers there are not really the type of people I want to be wandering around with is all. Plus I hate having to go hunt down a sales rep to buy a game and having them unlock the glass containers. I understand protecting your merchandise from the unsavoury people but I don't like being lumped with them. It's a similar reason I often don't goto gamestop. I haven't had any real issues there but I just don't like being lumped together with the people who would steal things simply because I am a customer and having to haven a go-between so they can keep an eye on me.

 

[Mouse_Crouse]

I was just on Gamestop's, Powerup Rewards website. You get 10 points for every dollar you spend on new games and consoles. 20 points for every dollar you spend on pre-owned games, accessories and/or, consoles. Recently, the 'rewards' catalog began advertising this T-Shirt:

It's on the website for 11,450 points. After doing some math, you will have to spend $1,145 on new stuff before you can afford that particular reward ($572.50 pre-owned). Keeping with the Zelda theme, you'd have to buy 5 new Wii's and about 3 games (all new) for it to accumulate that amount of points. Even if you went the used route, you'd need to get 3 pre-owned Wii's to get close (the 4th would get you enough points). You could get similar (if not better) designed Zelda shirts elsewhere for less than $500. Hell, you could probably find some at a Five-Below (five-below being a store sells all of it's product for prices that don't go higher than $5)

Power to the Player...indeed

For your own sanity please don't look into credit card rewards. This isn't that bad at all.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

-words-

For your own sanity please don't look into credit card rewards. This isn't that bad at all.

That was another thing about Best Buy: I tried to understand their credit card...thing. I couldn't see how it was beneficial at all. I tried wrapping my head around it but no matter how I looked at it, I couldn't see anything really good about it. Nothing against the Best Buy credit card but Credit Cards in general confound me.

 

[Sampler]

I generally dislike Gamestop a lot...

They're more expensive, the trade ins have a larger margin than most other game companies and often the staff seem pretty clueless.

I much prefer Game anyway...

You know Game own Gamestop... (well technically Blockbuster UK subsidury own both)

 

[Mouse_Crouse]

Honestly I've never really got the hate for Gamestop. I very well may live in some paranormal anomaly of an area, but both of our Gamestops have been well staffed with people who were pleasant and knew what they were talking about.

 

[rockyoumonkeys]

Eh...I've had bad experiences trying to return things to Best Buy and Target. Not enough to keep me from going there, but still kind of bad.

And hey, as much as I hate some of Gamestop's practices, I still get new releases there.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

You know Game own Gamestop... (well technically Blockbuster UK subsidury own both)

My profound Wikipedia skills have turned up nothing to support that claim, but nevertheless.

For the purposes of simply buying a game, GameStop stores are wildly different from GAME stores.

The latter being better in pretty much every way.

 

[Atmos Duality]

I've had good and bad experiences with just about every major retailer in my region.
One Gamestop has excellent service (even my friend works for them part-time, and they treat him well) and they let me bargain with them over old used game pricing; another has this creepy 40-something con-man who acts more than a little weird around children.

There are only two Target stores in my neck of the woods (compared to the 4, soon to be 5, Wal-Marts) and they are almost total polar opposites when it comes to game selection. Best Buy is a hit or miss deal: either they have what I want at a lower price than Gamestop, or they have it at a higher price.

Of course, there used to be a number of other game retail outlets nearby, but Gamestop and Best Buy bought them out years ago.

Fact is, if you know how to leverage your knowledge properly without coming across as a jackass, you can almost always get titles for less than the average retail price. But man, do you need patience to establish the process.

 

[MightyMole]

I've actually have the opposite experience. I found a game company I would recommend people to shop at if they can. Its in the mid-western U.S. and its called Vintage Stock (or Movie Trading Co. for Texans) They sell tons of used games from Xbox 360 and PS3 to NES and Atari games, all at better prices than Gamestop .

I've boycotted Gamestop and Activision. Gamestop is just a ridiculously bad choice for buying video games unless you live on an island with nothing but a Gamestop and no Internet access. More often than not, if you find a game cheap at Gamestop used than its probably just as cheap or cheaper Brand New on Amazon. Case and point: I almost bought Blue Dragon for $10 at Gamestop, but held off. Next day I picked it up for $1 on Amazon brand new, arrived a day or 2 later in the shrink wrap and everything. They don't even sell old games past last gen, and all their Gamecube games are usually over priced (I oddly cant say the same for PS2 games.. Probably because Wii is backwards compatible and PS3 isn't except for select models.).

Its almost sickening seeing people go in there and shop. I often go in their to browse at their selection and mention to my friends how most of the games I saw were on Amazon for $20 cheaper, rather obnoxiously so the shoppers around me get the hint. I cringed when a friend of mine went up there and traded in his old gaming collection. He sold his PS2 and about 40 PS2, Gamecube, PS3 games and Xbox 360 games for $100. Hell he would have got $110 if he didn't sign up for their bogus rewards thing for 10% more on his game trade-ins... Off the top of my head I know he traded in Metroid Prime and Echos, got $1 each for them and not even the week before I saw them on eBay selling for $9.99 and $18.99. That's $30 compared to the $2 he got for them. Not to mention around the time the Wii came out, they'd only buy Gamecubes for $10, when they were selling them for like... $60 or so.

Gamestop is a horrible middleman. If you wanna buy used games, go on eBay. You're more likely to be mugged leaving/entering Gamestop than you are getting targeted by a cyber criminals.

 

[tharglet]

It's on the website for 11,450 points. [..]
Power to the Player...indeed

Majority of loyalty card schemes are pretty insignificant if you work it out. I have cards for stores I shop in, but I don't especially spend money to get points. That way I get the occasional reward, without feeling like an idiot.

Ones I have very rarely send spam, so I guess I don't really rake in that much for 'em Pretty much all the junk mail I get is in the previous occupant's name (some of the stuff we get it looks like she got scammed at least once) or unaddressed.

 

[Rayne870]

Oddly Future Shop. I went looking for the Fallout 3 GotY edition with all the addons for $39.99. I couldn't find it so I spent about 20 minutes searching every nook and cranny for it, while standing about 5 feet away from 4 employees. Not one of them thought to see if I needed help and I wasn't about to interrupt their prattle and admit I couldn't find what I was looking for. Besides they are on commission, and from every other experience in future shop I had a hard time keeping them from giving me a lap-dance to peddle their wears.

I also go the most help out of the competition owned by the same company, Best Buy. Not only did the guy find the right tv for my apartment specs and lighting conditions but he pushed me to a less expensive tv that fit those demands and then threw in a high end surge protector for free. And I really really love my Samsung

 

[tharglet]

Had a bad experience with Maplins once. Hubby wanted some connectors for a DIY project (can't remember what ones now), so he rang up one of the stores to ask if they had any in. They said they did, and he asked them to put them to one side, and he'll be visiting in a few hours. They agreed to do this.

We turn up to the store, and ask for the reserved items. Guy goes off, and goes to hunt the connectors down. About 5-10 min later he returns to the desk... without them. He then reluctantly says they might be in the delivery, and would we like him to look. Um. Er. Ofc. That was the whole point of ringing up to check they had stock :/. Another 10-15 min later, we left rather disappointed with that store.

With reservations in the retail store I used to work in, we used to reserve things for so long (yeah, customers don't always turn up for reserved stuff). We'd date the stuff with post-its or paper to say when they were collecting, if they didn't turn up it went back on the shelves (be it stockroom or shop floor lol). Also we knew that stocking systems are unreliable - if the quantity was low, some person would go off and check.

 

[ace_of_something]

It could just be the fact that they charge an asinine amount for a used product and offer almost nothing on trade in or they use their customers to ensure their games work properly (ya know after they got your money for it).