Why do you hate Gamestop?

[Diddy_Mao]

I have no problems with Gamestop at all. I've been shopping there since back in the Software Etc. days.

The two stores that I generally go to are well stocked and clean stores, the staff is polite and knowledgeable and on the very rare chance I've had to return a faulty game they have replaced it without so much as a second thought.

Yeah, their insistence on pushing the "would you like fries with that" upsale can get a little tiresome if the CSR you're dealing with doesn't know how to take a polite "no thank you" for an answer, but for the most part I have no issues at all.

 

[Baldr]

What really irritated by about GameStop is the week FF13 came out, I rented it and liked it(not the issue). I went into GameStop to see if they had any copies a week later. They had a used copy for $57 dollars. As a game developer that upset me, they were already undercutting new copies.

 

[zelda2fanboy]

Dirty game boxes manhandled by grubby ten year olds. Game discs manhandled by grubby employees. I know this is "just how it is" and I honestly don't have a better idea of how to sell games in that limited space, but gosh, any other retailer is preferable to that - even Kmart. I don't "hate" them, but I would rather shop anywhere else. Why is a game with the plastic wrap and security stickers off of it considered "new" from gamestop, when that game in that exact same condition from me is considered "used" and nonrefundable everywhere else, including gamestop?

And yeah, there are simply better prices, not just online, but from other brick and mortar stores. The thing that annoys me about gamestop is how they "have" to sell used game and push preorders to stay in business, yet other places don't pull stuff like that. Hey, maybe a games-only retailer isn't a viable business model? When digital sales are yet another competitor to a place like gamestop, wouldn't it be a far better idea to offer physical / monetary incentives to shopping there, rather than digital map packs and exclusive digital skins? (Especially when you consider these exclusives just end up online eventually anyways.)

At a certain point, games are going to end up like music and movies, where it's not about getting a piece of plastic that can simply run a game. It's going to be about collectibility and fandom, which is something gamestop doesn't understand and will eventually kill them. Stop treating it like a public utility and start treating it like the niche that it is. Don't just sell a Call of Duty preorder. Sell Call of Duty t shirts and hats and jackets and buttons. Stock the games other places won't stock. I probably wouldn't buy a Silent Hill at a gamestop, but I'd sure as hell buy Silent Hill merchandise from one.

But no, this business major has to just sit back while retailers blame other factors for their inability to cater to customers and slide into irrelevance... anyone want to give me a job? I'd like a job.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

There are 2 main reasons that I dislike Gamestop/EB Games (they are essentially the same store):
1) I think they are single handily responsible for all this bullshit surrounding used game sales.
2) Because I don't like the fact that they allow their employees to "sample" the merchandise, so even when buying a "new" game from them there's no guarantee that you're not getting one that hasn't already been played (and mistreated). And before anyone doubts me, I found out about this in an article written by a former Gamestop employee.

Yeah, (2) has always kinda ground my gears, too. Not enough to keep me away from GameStop(after all, if the disc doesn't work, it ain't my fault, so give me a new one), but it does irritate me a little bit.

It's enough to keep me from shopping there. When I buy a new copy of a game I expect to be the first to play with that copy when I throw it in my system.

 

[Quaidis]

I like GameStop. Imagine if there weren't any (like with our Game crisis). We'd have to buy severely over-priced games, games would be much harder to find, used games would have a much larger chance of not working at all. It just wouldn't be as much of a game-friendly world.

All but two games I've purchased from a GameStop have worked fine. One of the games I got a fresh copy of that did work, the other game was so mediocre, and the game mechanics so buggy that they were hilarious that I kept it as a trophy.

I also only had one time where there was a pre-order woe, and that was a GameStop employee putting the wrong phone number/name on my pre-order receipt. I asked if I could change the receipt so it would be correct and he told me that I would have to buy a game in order to make that possible. Ended up having to go to another GameStop, who called the manager of the first, and had to cancel the first one, get my money back, and re-preorder Skyward Sword. When I came back to the first GameStop later, I found that the employee in question had been fired. So in that case it was less the GameStop in question and more of a douchebag working there.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

Man I have never had these sorts of problems dealing the EB Games guys in my city. The employees are usually game for a chin-wag and are pretty chill. Most pre-order pushes I get come directly after I've asked about an upcoming game, and the rewards card script must be different because after you say no its usually "No worries mate", you pay and you're out the door.

 

[Olas]

Pretty much everything about it really: things are overpriced, in bad condition, the employees are emotionless zombies except when they're trying to sell me pre-orders or other crap deals, you have to navigate through a labyrinth of game posters to reach the center of the store, if the game you want isn't brand new or very popular they probably won't have it in stock, selling games back to them is basically donating the games for free, they ask to see your ID when you're clearly in your 20s, the windows of their store let no light in or out due to the wall of posters they hang making the store kinda creepy from the inside AND outside, they don't even have a public bathroom you can use, and on top of all that the place just feels LAME. Ya I hate my Gamestop.

 

[sora91111]

Aside from some of their employee policies I've had no qualms with gamestop

 

[klown]

Maybe it's just the stores you go too. The gamestop near my house, by no means is perfect, but most of the people who work their are actually pretty good, and really funny. They nerd out and do like D&D sessions during work hours because why not?

There are some bad apples there, people who don't know what they are talking about, or have no clue about the culture they are getting involved in, but were hired as eye candy, but that is few and far between.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

The EB games I go to (EB was bought out by Gamestop awhile back) is a pretty cool place, they tend to go overboard with decorating the shop but the staff are helpful and they tend to pull off some really fun events such as the Skyrim midnight launch. They got several medieval war Renactment players and held a tournament with people with pre-orders betting tokens to see who would win. The person with the most tokens go their pre-order first.