Why all the Gamestop hate?

[Xanthious]

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

I can certainly see how that would piss you off. Were you held at gunpoint for these transactions? Were you drugged and possibly not in control of your own actions maybe? Perhaps Gamestop was holding one of your loved ones hostage until you agreed to trade in your games for a fraction of their value on the open market?

My point is you aren't forced to sell your games back to Gamestop. Hell, between eBay, craigslist, Amazon, and other such services if you are trading your games in to Gamestop it's only because you are simply too lazy to sell them in proper venue where you'd get actual value for them. I can promise you that if you buy a new game and decide you want to sell it or trade it in you should be easily able to get 75% of your money back for it on craigslist.

Personally I love Gamestop. I use their card and save extra money on used games and accessories. Those used games have a seven day return policy if I don't like them or they simply aren't worth keeping. On top of all that I'm constantly getting coupons for buy 2 used games get 1 free and the like. Do I trade back games I buy? Hell no. I sell any games I've kept past their return date on craigslist.

 

[Xanthious]

It is painful in how obviously little you know about how a gamestop works. Just because you have experience with perishable goods does not mean you know how their business works.

They can do whatever they want without worrying about alienating the publishers. Gamestop and the Publishers both know the amount of people that shop at those god forsaken stores. Even if they piss off the publishers the publishers arent likely to pull their products because they know that people do buy there still in large numbers, and even with the damage gamestop and their usedgame groupies do, they would be hurting themselves more by not letting gamestop carry their stuff. It is also important to know you can trade in a game you bought anywhere to gamestop, so if say EA doesnt let gamestop carry their crap, someone could still buy an EA game at Walmart then trade it in to gamestop for them to resell.

The largest amount of damage used games do are to the tail end of a product, where companies could rely on a longer life of their product by people buying new through weeks and months as price goes gradually down, now people buy it new, beat their games then trade them in, then gamestop pushes these used games, so the games no longer are being bought new a few weeks after they are released.

And the subtle pressure pisses me off about gamestop. "Oh you know we have used copies of this game right?" "Yeah, I want it new." "Why dont ya like saving money? Here, I can go get you one off the shelf for you." "No, just give me my damn game." "Oh, alright, but hey, if you bring this game back within a week we will give you 15 dollars for it, after that you will get only 10." (Actual conversation)

Everything you are saying sounds like it's the publisher/developers problem that they are unable to properly monetize their product even if you do accept the false assumption that Gamestop is somehow damaging the publishers and developers. Sadly though with the gaming industry continuing to post record profits year in and year out that conclusion isn't really one that lends it's self to being very credible.

Again, assuming this bullshit propaganda being spouted by publishers and their unpaid PR team (I hope they at least send ya a hat or tee shirt) is true, as a consumer, their failings in their business model means fuck all to me. The truth is though it's not true and they can kindly go find the rustiest piece of jagged metal available and bugger each other with it before I will ever listen to them whine about having to deal with the same used market that every other maker and seller of goods in recorded fucking history has somehow managed to deal with just fine to this point.

Sadly though this talk about used games is all just propaganda and convenient talking points used by backwards thinking developers and publishers that would probably be better served working as jizz moppers rather than game makers. Because the truth is, as I stated above, the gaming industry is growing at obscene rates and posting record profits even in spite of an economy that's one of the worst since the great depression. Yeah they are really hurting. Now if you will give me a minute I will search my couch for a few fucks I can give about how much they allegedly being hurt by used games.

 

[Nargleblarg]

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

I can certainly see how that would piss you off. Were you held at gunpoint for these transactions? Were you drugged and possibly not in control of your own actions maybe? Perhaps Gamestop was holding one of your loved ones hostage until you agreed to trade in your games for a fraction of their value on the open market?

My point is you aren't forced to sell your games back to Gamestop. Hell, between eBay, craigslist, Amazon, and other such services if you are trading your games in to Gamestop it's only because you are simply too lazy to sell them in proper venue where you'd get actual value for them. I can promise you that if you buy a new game and decide you want to sell it or trade it in you should be easily able to get 75% of your money back for it on craigslist.

Personally I love Gamestop. I use their card and save extra money on used games and accessories. Those used games have a seven day return policy if I don't like them or they simply aren't worth keeping. On top of all that I'm constantly getting coupons for buy 2 used games get 1 free and the like. Do I trade back games I buy? Hell no. I sell any games I've kept past their return date on craigslist.

Wow I'm quite impressed Xanthious you are one of the only persons on here who understands simple economics. When you involve a middleman in a process of exchange money is lost.

OT: Being an actual Gamestop employee will certainly gain me the title of extreme bias but I have to say most of the stuff on here is either simply explainable or utter crap. No company is perfect and businesses are pretty insane to begin with.

I've seen mention of opening product and still selling it. This is only true of one copy of any new game, and the only reason for it is to have an actual physical case on the wall for people to look at before they buy it, in the end they still get the product it's not some complicated scam. If it bugs people that the game was temporarily left from the case to protect it from theft then they don't have to buy it and can GTFO. Gamestop has always done this so its nothing new and many other businesses do this as well.

As for asshole employees......for anyone who has ever worked a retail job it sucks. And you would be pissed off some days from taking abuse from people who don't understand half the shit you explain to them. I've been threatened multiple times, deal with ignorant customers who question everything that I say, and get cussed out at least once per week. That's any retail job out there, and company's prohibit employees from fighting back and basically just take it.

I read something about pushy employees as well.....its a business and we like being paid to take care ourselves and our families. As long as you can say No there isn't a problem.

And all the used games killing the industry crap. No seriously study the business, while yes used games do divert sales from companies do you have any idea how ungodly large cuts publishers take though? Of all the money that is made on a new game sale the actual creator sees only a few dollars off of it.

 

[Zx30]

The main reason I stay away from Gamestop is because it's overpriced. Even used games. I always get better deals from Amazon or Ebay. The only string of hate towards Gamestop I have is when I tried to purchase Mario Kart DS a few days after its release. I couldn't get one because all of the ones currently in store were being held for Pre-orders. Fair enough...but he had to rub it in my damn face on how I should have pre-ordered and that I wouldn't be able to find it anywhere and next time I NEED to preorder.

I promptly left the store and traveled to the Wal-mart located in the same shopping center and got one there. Plenty of copies to go around. Because of that one guy, I now visit Gamestop a hell of a lot less...I don't even think I've purchased anything there since then because I looked for alternatives...

And I know it may seem petty, but we all do it. We associate the people working there as GAMESTOP, WALGREENS, or WALMART it self. If one person screws us over, we are left with a sour taste in our mouths...we say to ourselves..."Wow...if they hired this douche...they all have to be this way"...

 

[Spearmaster]

at my three (all three) local Gamestop locations Ive had to request "unopened" new copies of games every time and im given grief for my request if they have one at all, they don't have a PC game section at 2 of the locations, the third's is sad if it still exists today, sales people push used games over new every time, push consoles over my PC telling me that consoles will be a better PC than a PC in 10 years and I should "upgrade", they hustle bad games to people because they know you are gonna resell it back to them so they can re hustle it, and the difference in what they pay you for a used game, what they sell it for and what it is new I can usually get it new on amazon for less than their used price, I ask for new its $60 used is like $50-55, mainly hate the hustling of bad games for a quick resell.
My general experience
Clerk-"buy this game its awesome, great reviews I played it for hours, everyone loves it"
Me-"$60 OK ill try it"
play for 2 hours, look at is disgusted
Me-"better sell it back while its still pretty new"
Clerk-"we can give you like..$10 for it, its not a very popular game"
Me-"but your selling it used for $55!?"...never again
Next guy-"this game any good"
Clerk-"yeah man its awesome and we got a deal for you we got a used one that's only a day old for $5 bucks less"

 

[.No.]

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

This. It's because of a Gamestop employee that I got into the Fallout series, because he recommended it over a used copy of Bioshock 2, Which costed around twice as much. Most(if not all) Gamestop employees I've encountered are gamers and actually know what they're talking about.

 

[thespyisdead]

i don't have any negative experience with them. and i really appreciate the used games they sell, and the inexpensive older PC games they have on display, they do, however, tend to have a bit overpriced new games...

and people, that think that used games are a sin, then i will gladly go to hell for my sin

 

[Adultratedhydra]

As someone who worked at EBGames (Thier aus branch) Its safe to say that, yes thier business practices are shady as hell and they hire the most incompetant people (One of my casuals could never sell PC games because he only knew about a PS3.).

However you will find some employees are there because they love thier hobby and in the store i worked at the manager and i had an understanding, if someone came to me with a game i knew was bad (Im talking from a technical standpoint.) id inform them of this. As for the comments on some employee "Rudeness" im sure many people considered me rude because i wouldnt throw in an extra controller when they were buying thier PS3. "Oh yes well you could cant you?" "No." "oh what a tightass" "Yes. Because my job is worth your PS3, get the hell out of my store." -Actual conversation with possibly the worst customer i ever dealt with.

Wall of text made short.

Hate the company and the dumb employees, but dont blame the employees for doing thier job. Work a day in retail and youll understand why some act like they do. And Gamestop sucks.

 

[Spearmaster]

at my three (all three) local Gamestop locations Ive had to request "unopened" new copies of games every time and im given grief for my request if they have one at all, they don't have a PC game section at 2 of the locations, the third's is sad if it still exists today, sales people push used games over new every time, push consoles over my PC telling me that consoles will be a better PC than a PC in 10 years and I should "upgrade", they hustle bad games to people because they know you are gonna resell it back to them so they can re hustle it, and the difference in what they pay you for a used game, what they sell it for and what it is new I can usually get it new on amazon for less than their used price, I ask for new its $60 used is like $50-55, mainly hate the hustling of bad games for a quick resell.
My general experience
Clerk-"buy this game its awesome, great reviews I played it for hours, everyone loves it"
Me-"$60 OK ill try it"
play for 2 hours, look at is disgusted
Me-"better sell it back while its still pretty new"
Clerk-"we can give you like..$10 for it, its not a very popular game"
Me-"but your selling it used for $55!?"...never again
Next guy-"this game any good"
Clerk-"yeah man its awesome and we got a deal for you we got a used one that's only a day old for $5 bucks less"

gamestop employees =/= gamestop

No but they represent them and some of them are managers that have been there 3 years also gamestop is the sum of all its parts.
employees=customer service
customer=revenue
revenue=gamestop
:. employees=gamestop (as per my experience anyway)

 

[Yopaz]

I don't hate GameStop, but I dislike them for the following reasons.

They have a terrible return policy. Buy a new game from GameStop and if it doesn't work you wont get a refund. This has happened to me several times despite how they claim they will give refunds to any non functional games. Once they even accepted a return and paid what they would pay for someone selling a used game, since the game wasn't used they sold it as a new game.

Their prices are generally higher than all of my other sources for video games. I can usually get new games cheaper than used games from GameStop. I've even seen GameStop selling a new game for less than the price of the same game used.

It's usually difficult to find old games new (thinking a year or two). In general they don't seem to have a very good selection at all. It's strange that most of the GameStops around here got a worse selection of games than my electronics store.

 

[Spearmaster]

at my three (all three) local Gamestop locations Ive had to request "unopened" new copies of games every time and im given grief for my request if they have one at all, they don't have a PC game section at 2 of the locations, the third's is sad if it still exists today, sales people push used games over new every time, push consoles over my PC telling me that consoles will be a better PC than a PC in 10 years and I should "upgrade", they hustle bad games to people because they know you are gonna resell it back to them so they can re hustle it, and the difference in what they pay you for a used game, what they sell it for and what it is new I can usually get it new on amazon for less than their used price, I ask for new its $60 used is like $50-55, mainly hate the hustling of bad games for a quick resell.
My general experience
Clerk-"buy this game its awesome, great reviews I played it for hours, everyone loves it"
Me-"$60 OK ill try it"
play for 2 hours, look at is disgusted
Me-"better sell it back while its still pretty new"
Clerk-"we can give you like..$10 for it, its not a very popular game"
Me-"but your selling it used for $55!?"...never again
Next guy-"this game any good"
Clerk-"yeah man its awesome and we got a deal for you we got a used one that's only a day old for $5 bucks less"

gamestop employees =/= gamestop

No but they represent them and some of them are managers that have been there 3 years also gamestop is the sum of all its parts.
employees=customer service
customer=revenue
revenue=gamestop
:. employees=gamestop (as per my experience anyway)

the suits make gs what it is, the retail employees, like in any major corporation, have zero power in determining policy, prices, whatever, they're just little cogs in the machine, albeit a failing machine. You ever try to get someone to buy your used copy instead of theirs inside of a gamestop? Lol they get maaaaaad

I know that the employees don't make policy but I loose sympathy for them when I remember they are getting paid to do these things, gamestop does bad things to get money, gamestop employees do bad things to get money, sounds pretty much the same, I do feel for people that have to work said job to get by with bills and such though, extra harsh for them and thats another reason I don't like gamestop.

 

[LiquidSolstice]

>Buy new game the day it comes out for $60
>Trade it in the next day and get $20 back
>Visit store next day, see your game being sold for $60

Regardless of the fact that in your idiotic little story that a full refund would have been a better strategy, I laugh at the whole "gamestop rips me off on used games" bullshit.

Here's a nice dose of reality for you.

A) You are not required to sell anything to Gamestop. Craigslist, eBay, Amazon, go nuts.
B) Why the hell should GameStop pay you anywhere near the original value for a game that they already have a ton of in stock? If a store has 50 copies of MW3 in stock, why the fuck should they buy it from you for even $30? It doesn't make any monetary sense for them to do so, it's just the usual "I should be entitled to xyz" gamer mentality that seems to think differently...

Selling your games to GameStop is not economical, it's not profitable, it's not wise. You know what it is? Convenient. It's fast, it's always there, and it requires almost no effort from you.

That being said, I stopped selling my games back to GameStop because frankly, I like my games too much.

 

[LiquidSolstice]

No but they represent them and some of them are managers that have been there 3 years also gamestop is the sum of all its parts.
employees=customer service
customer=revenue
revenue=gamestop
:. employees=gamestop (as per my experience anyway)

I like how you skipped out on the online purchasing ecosystem of the equation to revenue. Because that of course doesn't mean anything at all.

Customer service is not the same thing as customer, either. You cannot "have experience with employees being the same as gamestop as a whole" because it is not possible for you to know what Gamestop is, as a whole.

 

[Spearmaster]

No but they represent them and some of them are managers that have been there 3 years also gamestop is the sum of all its parts.
employees=customer service
customer=revenue
revenue=gamestop
:. employees=gamestop (as per my experience anyway)

I like how you skipped out on the online purchasing ecosystem of the equation to revenue. Because that of course doesn't mean anything at all.

Customer service is not the same thing as customer, either. You cannot "have experience with employees being the same as gamestop as a whole" because it is not possible for you to know what Gamestop is, as a whole.

I was just answering the OP's question on why I hate gamestop and that I did, I don't care about the rest of gamestop I don't see because that's not the part I deal with, customer service leads to customers and if that was not a huge part of their business they wouldn't have 3 gamestops and an eb games within 5 miles of each other. I don't like them so I don't deal with them anymore simple as that, same for a lot of people, I don't agree with the game devs trying to halt the sales of used games though that is worse than what gamestop does. I usually give away games im done with to people I know that are not as well off as I am and they are trying to block that at the same time.

 

[Vigormortis]

They're like the walmart of game stores. They're cheap, everywhere, and use extremely shady tactics. They make a profit from used games and the devs/publishers don't see any of that money.

For me, it's not the fact that they sell used games. That doesn't bother me. Second hand markets are just how the world works.

Likewise, I don't hate the employees, per-se. Sure, there are the occasional asshole-employee who acts like a jerk to the customers, but that's true of every business.

What does bother me, and is the reason I hate Gamestop, is the way they treat gamers and publishers at a corporate level. For example, with the gamers, the used games they sell are marked WAY too high to the point it's just a blatant rip-off. You're almost better served just buying new in most cases. At the same time, they push "deals", pre-orders, and "club memberships" on people. Even if you're already signed-up.

Then there's their general policies with publishers. (not that some pubs don't deserve it. *cough* EA *cough*) For example, taking 70% of all game sales and giving less than 30% to the publishers; on a good day. That's just ridiculous and way more than is likely needed to cover their over-head. (an assumption, admittedly)

That said, I also hate how, after saying I don't like Gamestop, I get people accusing me of simply hating used game sales or irrationally hating Gamestop employees. That's not at all what I say. People really need to stop putting words in my mouth.

[edit]
Also, need I remind people of the time Gamestop was caught allowing employees to take copies of new releases home? They were allowed to open the cases to play the games and then they'd bring the game disc and case back. The store would then re-shrink-wrap the case and put it on the shelf marked at full price as "new". This wasn't an isolated incident either. This was a corporate-level allowance.

 

[GDB]

One of the biggest concerns many GameStop employees have is that they have to keep working after they clock out (in other words, the have to work ?off the clock?). Some employees report that they are given way more to do than can be completed in a shift, but if they don?t clock out on time, or don?t finish the work, they can be fired. So employees end up clocking out and then finish the work. Other employees complain that the Comdata Card comes with fees, effectively reducing the actual paycheck. These are blatant violations of federal and state wage and hour laws, and Meiselman, Denlea, Packman, Carton & Eberz, P.C. is actively investigating a potential class action against GameStop. If you would like to discuss your legal options, please do not hesitate to contact me:

Greg Blankinship, Esq.
Meiselman, Denlea, Packman, Carton & Eberz, P.C.
1311 Mamaroneck Avenue
White Plains, NY 10605
914-517-5000
[email protected]

To ensure compliance with applicable rules of professional conduct, please note that this post might be construed as Attorney Advertising. Thank you, and I look forward to hearing from you.

 

[scorptatious]

I'm really not sure. My experiences with GameStop have been positive overall. Sure, there are those employees who ask if you would like to subscribe to GameInformer and if you have a rewards card, but they're just doing their job.

That being said, their weekly ads that enter my email inbox can be kinda annoying. Plus I find it easier to find older and cheaper games over at places like say, Dimple Records.