Why all the Gamestop hate?

[SergeantAnt]

I've seen a lot of hate for Gamestop around the net. However, most of it wasn't really explained and I don't really get it. I've never had anything but exemplary service from the store I go to, so I'm hoping people can give reasonable and civil explanations (PLEASE no flame wars).

Also, I apologize if this is a repeat thread.

I'm the same. The local store is 5 minutes away, so i became a member and get almost all my game stuff there. All the clerks are super nice, especially this one guy who just talks and talks about video games he's played its funny.

Yet just like every franchise theres going to be great and shitty stores its just how it is. We got lucky i suppose

 

[Tiamattt]

Last x-mas a friend got me 2 games from them along with gift receipts just in case I didn't like them and wanted to trade them in for something else. While I appreciated the gifts I was in the market for a 3ds and wanted to trade the games in for a discount. The receipts had a date I can trade them in for as long as they weren't open, which was like a month after x-mas. But when I tried I got some BS about how "oh you can only do that a week after it was purchased" despite nothing of the sort being written on the receipt. So I asked what could they do for me and they said I had to go home, open them and then come back another day so they can pay me used game prices for them, which btw was nothing compared to selling them on ebay.

The moral of the story is do NOT get gift receipts for your friends at gamestop, they're literally worthless pieces of paper.

On another note I also dislike that fact that their used prices are pretty much a sneeze from their new game prices, and even more expensive then other places selling the same game brand new.

 

[sabercrusader]

I have absolutely no problem with Gamestop. They have only provided me good service every single time I've been there. I may kinda hate the price I get if I sell a brand new game there, but honestly, when you think about it, whining about it won't get you anywhere, if you don't want it anymore, find a friend that wants it and sell it to them for $40 or something. Or on Ebay or something for that price. No one's forcing you to sell it back to Gamestop. Hell, if you can't do that, give it to someone as a gift, that way you won't need to buy another one for them.

 

[Flailing Escapist]

Bad experiences, I'm assuming, I've never gotten any flak from them myself. I don't shop there because we have several intown gaming stores that always have cheaper prices and pay more for used games. I just use them for pre-orders because they get all those exclusives and it's almost garanteed that they'll have them, especially collector's editions.

I've heard some stories, though.

 

[viranimus]

A large portion of the hate will generate from the fact that some people do not realize that Gamestop is just as much a part of the gaming industry as the publishers/developers and the industry is better off for it.

 

[2HF]

Most any complaints one can have with Gamestop may be legit save for one, if you don't like the amount that they offer you for a game DON'T SELL IT TO THEM. If you sell your game for the amount they offered you then you have absolutely no right to complain about it.

I work at Gamestop and at my store we do open new games because we have to display a box, but the disks are stored separately from the used games and in white sleeves. We are allowed to check out used games, not new. This is my store. Others may be different of course. If you must hate at least reserve that hate for your specific store.

 

[The]

I dont have many complaints. I just walk in, find my game, and get out. I also dont pre order often, so it helps me not hating them.

 

[Dogstile]

I think a lot of people are mixing a conversation like this:

"Dude, buy this pre-owned copy, its cheaper"
"I wanna buy this new version thanks"
"You sure man? It works just as much as a new one and you save money"
"Oh, ok then"

with a conversation like this:

"Dude, buy this one"
"I don't want to"
"Seriously, buy it, its better"
"I want to buy this one, thanks"
"Just fucking buy the cheap one or get out"

Which people actually complain about all the time. I don't see how someone offering you a cheaper copy is apparently hostile and shady, but people get offended by the darnedest things these days.

Oh, in regards to employees at GAME asking if you want to buy points or pre-order something while you're there, when I asked a year ago he told me that they got rated on the accessories or pre-orders that they sold.

Then he promptly told me he'd give me £10 if I flipped a coin and it was a tails, on the condition that I would pre-order a game that I was thinking of getting if it was a heads. I loved that guy, made every trip into that store a laugh.

Going into the aldershot branch on the otherhand, was horrifying. I got kicked out for chuckling when the guy on the till asked a guy with a white gandalf beard for ID. Pricks.

TLR
It really depends on the shop if its the employees, if not read the top half of the post, you lazy prick

 

[TaintedSaint]

Because they only sell used games $3 cheaper than new ones.
Because they annoy the piss out of me trying to up sell me everything that is coming out for the whole next year.
oh and they treat employees like dirt.

 

[Thanatos5150]

they you jack shit for game trades even with 10% bonus with the card or the new trade in with 3 games=10% extra trade in value,5 games=20% extra trade in value and 7+ games=30% extra trade in value. Even with this extra stuff you don't make much money back and Gamestop sells it for 10X what they gave you.

It really pisses me off

How dare they use the laissez-faire capitalist economic system of most developed nations properly? The swine!

~~~
On another note: I must be lucky. I've only interacted with sufficently knowledgeable, professional Gamestop employees.

 

[EHKOS]

I don't like their prices and their employees have been disrespectful towards me.

 

[Snotnarok]

Many times I've run into incompetent employees who don't know what basic video/audio stuff is, managers trying to peddle off a used PS3 for 600USD+tax when it was very, very clearly used(when ps3 was newish).

Their trade in/used sales are a joke $12 to sell a literally new game? 54.99 used? I've been going to estarland who rather than 18 bucks for Metroid Other M (Hated that game) I got 28 I believe. And their deals go beyond PS3/360/wii they have Gen/PSOne/Gba/NES/etc. So more money, more old ass games for me to buy.

 

[The Pinray]

Don't apologize for a repeat thread. Nearly every thread is a repeat thread. Just let the search bar Nazis ***** like they always do. It's sort of cute in a way.

On Topic: I just dislike how much they push used sales and constantly drone on about pre-orders or magazines or other superfluous shit.

I just want to buy this game and leave. No, I don't want to be a member of your club. No, I don't want to pre-order that. No, not that, either. No, please, no pre-orders for me today. Yes, I'm sure. Thank you. Yeah, yeah.

Also, the basement dwellers that hang out there and seriously think that the staff there want to talk to them about their WoW characters or some such nonsense. It's tragic yet hilarious.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, have you ever traded in a game there? You'd be lucky to get a buck out of them.

 

[LobsterFeng]

This one time an employee started criticizing my taste in video games even though I wasn't trying to start a conversation with him at all. (I just wanted to buy my game and he started criticizing me about it.) That was just one employee though and I haven't seen him there since.

Other than that I don't really have a problem with them, I mean besides online they have the best game selections in my town and I hate buying online so that's where I go.

 

[Threeseventyfive]

I have a bunch of reasons to hate gamestop, including the fact that they sometimes screw up my orders and send me the wrong game. These videos will explain why gamestop sucks in more detail:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQfyEdmUQ9s[/youtube]


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS_s9gyjYcQ[/youtube]

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I worked at a local one for a while and while I liked them somewhat before my feelings towards them has soured in recent years. Since they don't have any direct competition they don't really need to worry about extra services or, customer service. Working there I was never trained outside of how to work the point-of-sales computer. As for extra services, I didn't realize how little Gamestop had to offer until I started shopping Play-n-Trade who rents out games, repairs discs and, deals in games from as far back as the Atari generation if not further.

Most of the gamestops in my area do employ great people. They're nice enough and have a good knowledge of what's out and about. Working for them though, it was made perfectly clear by the store-manager that I was replaceable: the first job experience where my job security was threatened by a higher-up.

I haven't bought anything from Gamestop in well over a year. They don't need any of my money and there are a lot of better alternatives. Xenoblade Chronicals is my only real GS temptation but I'll probably just shell out the extra $10 on a 'used' copy on Amazon or wait and see if someone brings a copy to p-n-t.

 

[Jitters Caffeine]

I have a bunch of reasons to hate gamestop, including the fact that they sometimes screw up my orders and send me the wrong game. These videos will explain why gamestop sucks in more detail:

Fixed your links for you.

But yeah, I've seen these myself as well as others like it. I've heard TONS of horror stories from former employees about how they treat their employees like shit and think of their customers even less.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

Hell, they make BEST BUY employees look good. That is a feat.

Hold on there! Let's not be crazy!

I used to work as a sales associate for Best Buy in the Portable Electronics department, specializing in media. Hell, I think the main reason they hired me was because of my large libraries of games, movies, and music - they knew I had a pretty solid grasp of the products I'd be selling.

After a few months they decided to rotate everyone in Portable Electronics away from their specialties so that we could all be more versatile or something. Notably, this came with no training whatsoever. I got shifted over to Car-Fi first. Notably, the only thing in that department I have any grasp of whatsoever is GPS systems - and they flung me into that department with no training and no guidance for a solid month before rotating everyone again. The second rotation I got Digital Imaging. I've never owned a camera, I don't intend on ever owning a camera, I have no interest in taking pictures, I really couldn't care less about the product... yet that's where they put me. That's the day I resigned, along with a few other coworkers.

So if you're at a Best Buy store and the employee that's "helping" you seems to know nothing about the product, chances are pretty good that they're legitimately unfamiliar with it and attempting to learn it on the fly because management thought it'd be a great idea to make everyone a Jack-of-all-trades, and clearly also a master of none.

 

[Aprilgold]

Because they hurt the industry more and more effectively then piracy ever will.

Mainly, they reward the player, and push the customer to buy used copies at the end of a sale at any time. If you return games, you get a discount, if you buy used games you save tons of money.

At one time they essentially forced me to NOT LEAVE if I did NOT buy a used game, thats just silly.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

It's not the used game sales thing, trade-in prices, or anything like that that bothers me. It's how they treat their employees (from what I've heard in stories) that bothers me about them. Honestly, training them to be pushy assholes, and even possibly let the employee know they're expendable? That's too much of a joke...

I admire them for one little thing though, and I thought this was just way too cool. I pre-ordered Kid Icarus Uprising there over a year ago, and I called them the day before its release to be sure my copy was there. They said "We have one, and it's a pre-order". Being the dumb ass I can be at times, I assumed it was somebody else's. I quickly turned back and asked if it was under my name, and you guessed it, it was! I literally had the only copy of the game that was shipped to them at the time. Something about that just felt so cool :3 Sure that might've happened elsewhere, but it was a moment where I had the one and only copy in the store. I liked that!