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Things you hate about gamestop?

They don't stock enough PC games.

I like shopping at a store devoted entirely to games. It still baffles me that so many gamers don't. It could be structured better, but it's the only game store around where I live now. Given the choice, I did prefer the Xtreme Game Cage that use to be attached to Hollywood Video stores.
 
I hate the constant harassment to preorder or get an edge card
the lack of preorder bonuses because they kept it for themselves
gutted copies that are still sold as "new"
the lies when a salesperson does not know the answer to a question
 
six layers of stickers on the cases

edge card? no
perorder? no
$5 scratch protection? no

plus, the odd time the teller feels like making chit-chat with the local nerd who didn't buy anything for 5 minutes while i wait in line
 
The last time I shopped at Gamestop was a couple of years ago. They charged $35 for the Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, whereas everyone else was charging $30, but I figured I'd go ahead and reserved it for the pre-order bonus, which was some art work that they were advertising in the store window. The game finally comes out and the dude behind the counter says the truck with the art work got delayed and would be there tomorrow, a week passes and it's still not there. So I called them up and this is what they told me:

"I'm sorry, the company who produced the art cells backed out, they never existed."

So I ask why they advertised the art work in the store window and the guy tells me, "Well, the poster says 'while supplies last', we never guaranteed it to you".

They offered me some other crap when I pointed out that this was false advertising, but I decided not to take it. I'm just glad I got burned on some crappy piece of artwork and not something bigger. I'm not doing business with a company that thinks "While supplies last" applies to something that doesn't exist.

Edit: This is just the experience that pushed me over the edge. I've always had issues with their gutted games and constant nagging.

Then I got a credit card, and Amazon made game shopping great again.
 
I stopped going to Gamestop after they sold me a new copy of a game and then proceeded to sell me an already opened "new" game. I guess because they put a sticker on the case after he shoved the envelope in designated it as new game. Never again.
 
kamspy said:
They don't stock enough PC games.
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that's just it, I would never buy a PC game from pawnstop

their terrible support and selection doesn't deserve any sales, maybe they'll have better luck when they hijack impulse but as of now they deserve no sales for PC games, their lackluster support deserves to be ignored
 
I hate how their website's inventory is a dumping ground for defective items sent back to them from individual store locations.

I placed an order a few years back for roughly 30 PS2/XB/GC games. Every last game case had a "defective" sticker lazily covered up. Disc conditions ranged from bad to heavily resurfaced, to "scratched to hell and obviously did not touch the disc buffer." The lone GBA cart I ordered was falling apart.

Seems pretty obvious to me they try to squeeze every last penny out of their defective merchandise at the expense of the customer's shopping experience. And there is no doubt in my mind that returned items are placed directly back into their inventory. They probably just hope people won't be arsed to hassle with returning the shit.

That said, thus far, their website's customer service has been very helpful in taking care of my problems. I've been ordering a lot of GBA games lately since their GBA prices are cheap as is the shipping. Want to beef my library up before I have to resort to ebay and amazon for GBA games and end up paying more for shipping than the cost of many of the games... Anyway, for the few games I've gotten from them that have been counterfeit or non-working they've refunded me without me having to send the items back.

I posted this same criticism on CAG earlier and it got deleted. Pfft. Dem phat affiliate moneyz
 
Ok even though I detest this business, I will say one positive thing.

They are great at having a game available on release day, no matter how niche the game. I drove to 4 stores looking for Disgaea 3 when it came out, and finally had to swallow my pride and go to gamestop. There was a copy waiting for me. Luckily, they didn't pretend they only had enough copies for pre-orders. I think there have been 1 or 2 other games/accessories I wanted to impulse buy that I needed Gamestop for. Typically I just do release date delivery from amazon, though.
 
I used to like EB back in the day...years before the buy out. However, GameStop is garbage and has been for years. I've stopped shopping there for good, now all other stores will benefit. Namely Amazon but also TrU and Walmart to a lesser degree.
Removing the plastic wrap and breaking the seal on the case means the item is no longer new. No other chain store does this with physical media (CDs, DVDs, BluRays, VideoGames, etc).

(Years ago) Twice I can recall being tricked into buying what I thought was a new game, only to go home and realize the seal on the case is missing and there are finger prints all over the manual and disc. I'm not sure why GameStop thinks its Ok for the customer to subsidize this idea of letting employees play games while they re-shrink-wrap the package the next day and sell it to you at full/new price. (All under the guise that the item is new from the factory when in fact, it's not)

This BS argument that they gut the cases for display or so employees can play the game (for product knowledge) doesn't fly with me either. It's a shady practice and the more you shop at GameStop, the more you tell them that this is acceptable.

Like I mentioned earlier...I get most of my videogame goods from Amazon. Amazon destroys GameStop in every way possible. You could make an entirely new thread on why Amazon is so awesome to buy stuff from. However, if I need something asap, TrU or Walmart are always options.
 
I don't.

The employees at the one near my house are nice, good prices on used games, a ton of variety, and I have quite a few good gaming conversations there. *shrug*
 
kamspy said:
Given the choice, I did prefer the Xtreme Game Cage that use to be attached to Hollywood Video stores.
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Man I miss GameCrazy. It might've turned into Gamestop 2 in it's later days and gained flack over those dumb marketing videos but I'd give a lot just to go back into the worst Gamecrazy store.

I'll never forget the one employee's advice he gave me for haggling deals on old games.

edit: GS is mostly either preorders or deals for me now. I used to preorder off Amazon but they fucked up my last couple of preorders really bad, so that left a bad taste in my mouth for a while.
 
Nothing.

The way some people here seem to go into a mad frothing rage over Gamestop is kind of ridiculous, tbh. If the ones in your area suck, just buy your games somewhere else. What's the big deal?
 
Tellaerin said:
Nothing.

The way some people here seem to go into a mad frothing rage over Gamestop is kind of ridiculous, tbh. If the ones in your area suck, just buy your games somewhere else. What's the big deal?
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If you find that you have to shop elsewhere because you hate a store, doesn't that sort of make sense that you'd post in a thread about why you hate the store?
 
Over priced games, stickers, opened boxes of new games. I haven't shopped there for over a 15 months and I have saved money hundreds of euros.
 
Grinchy said:
If you find that you have to shop elsewhere because you hate a store, doesn't that sort of make sense that you'd post in a thread about why you hate the store?
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I just think it's kind of ridiculous that people work themselves into a frothing rage over Gamestop, of all things. I've seen a fair number of people here say they want Gamestop to go out of business because they hate the place so much. And usually it's because of something minor like 'their used games are overpriced' or 'the salespeople are pushy' - definitely nothing that calls for an over-the-top hatefest.
 
I bought a "new" TE fight stick yesterday Gamestop. It was delivered from another store. The box was in shit shape. Fair enough, stick is over a year old. Fuckin tape holding it shut was ripped, there was some sort of gunk on the stick and the headset adapter was broken. Stick works great though. Can I just have a new sealed item from Gamestop please like it's supposed to be?
 
The new game gutted thing always irked me. When I've walked into a gamestop for a new game I would always go to the counter and specifically ask, "Do you guys have any sealed copies of <game>?" If they said, "No but we have new copies, it's practically the same thing!" I said, "No thanks," and walk out. Usually the employees seem to understand that this is a ridiculous way of doing business. And the ones who don't are probably the ones who just played that gutted game to play it in the back for free, or even took it home the night before.

To those who are frustrated by pre-orders and magazine subscriptions, I've been told by multiple people who used to work there that the part time employees' scheduled hours are based on these sales numbers. Is anyone who works for GS on here able to confirm that?
 
Snuggler said:
I would like to grab a game, buy it and leave.

I know they force their grunts to do it, but I don't care about your card, I don't care about preordering a game that comes out six months from now, I don't care if your grubby used version is two dollars less, I don't care about pawning my games to you for pennies on the dollar.

Just leave me alone and let me buy the goddamn game.
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It keeps me out of the store, unless I HAVE to go there for some reason.
 
I'm kinda mixed on the open new game rant. While I don't think we should sell open copies as new, but we have to put at least one copy on display and someone is going to end up with that copy. I sold them -10% shopworn, however we would (note would) take steps to avoid selling gutted copies. We'd never gut more than one copy of any game. But we would use coming soon or display cases for the 1st month. Games that we knew had a small fan base and/or that we only received <4 copies (think SMT games)we'd wait a week until we put them out for display. Special, Limited and Collector Editions were never gutted. Now we'll get 20 copies of a game and gut 8 for display. It make customers unhappy and gives us extra work. Someone has to get that last copy and we can't just sell it as used.
 
It is presently almost 5 AM in the morning for me, so I might just be paranoid due to a lack of sleep...

*dons tin-foil hat*

...but I got the weirdest feeling when reading the thread title. It almost seems like one of those customer feedback surveys so that a corporation can evaluate their flaws, and work out how to improve themselves.

Now, to stay on-topic... *takes off tin-foil hat*

I hate that they're not Amazon.
 
Necromanti said:
...but I got the weirdest feeling when reading the thread title. It almost seems like one of those customer feedback surveys so that a corporation can evaluate their flaws, and work out how to improve themselves.t*
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Funny thing is we get shit if people don't fill out those surveys. The company is great for making their money and running their business as such. But as a fine retailer of videogames the are full of fail, for the true gamer. My store tries to walk a fine balance, but when our bills are due we can really care less about your sealed copy of Deadly Premonition or 999. So you wanna put $5 on Modern Warfare 3? You know you're gonna want it
 
I am still amazed at how Gamestop manages to survive in Europe, particularly here in Germany. They are so expensive and even used games are expensive. Example:

PS3 games are usually full price at around 60 Euros, the same game used costs 55 Euros. Why would I buy the game new or used there when I can order the same game on Amazon UK for 30-40 Euros? Not to mention the UK games don't have the disgusting USK logo that takes up 1/4 of the cover.

I guess that unlike myself, many Germans do want German games so they buy them at Gamestop or another retailer. But Amazon Germany is also way cheaper than any retail store. I just know I buy all my games on Amazon Germany or Amazon UK nowadays. ^_^

I do sometimes check gamestop for some used PS2 RPGs I missed, but they always try to sell me games that I know I can get cheaper online. The one time I actually took out my phone and showed the employee I could get the game for half the price-online he was so shocked, that he has not tried to sell me anything since. xD
 
Yeah, that place sucks. I'm sure by now they're asking every single customer if they want to pre-order Modern Warfare 3...

The other day I went in there to get the god of war collection (which they only had a gutted "new" copy of, but hey, at least it wasn't a DS game that has a save file on it already when you buy it new because that happens all the time) and the two clerks were having some argument about some random game for about 2 full minutes as I stood in front of the registers. They finally turned to me and said, "Oh, both of our registers are down. They haven't been working for like an hour."

Ugh. THEN WHY IS THE STORE EVEN OPEN???
 
Thats the the number 1 thing I hate about games retail is how disorganized it is. Nowadays I can't be bothered to go through the pile of games hoping to find one at a reasonable price...though if I know one will be there I'm more likely to bother (like I do with CEX...being able to look up stock online is great, thats about the only thing about Gamestop I'd say).

But basically I don't want salespeople, just cashiers is fine by me.

CadetMahoney said:
In the UK we have this thing called CEX (Computer Exchange) I hope they close too, alas I don't see that happening since there will always be someone wanting to sell something.
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May I ask why? It seems randomly thrown into there.

shintoki said:
I went to one before where the guy asked me "Why the hell did you preorder it in the first place, if you were going to cancel it". Took a nasty ass attitude with me, I decided to cancel my other pre-order while at it, and never went back.
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I think what happens is employees and stores have a quota of all kinds of crap to sell x% pre-owned, y% pointless insurance etc. Problem is canceling a pre-order reduces that employees pre-order not the employee you originally did the pre-order with. Its stupid but if I was being punished for being behind the till at that moment I'd be pretty annoyed too.

If you don't meet the quotas the district manager whines their head off at you and/or may fire you.

Codeblue said:
The last time I shopped at Gamestop was a couple of years ago. They charged $35 for the Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, whereas everyone else was charging $30, but I figured I'd go ahead and reserved it for the pre-order bonus, which was some art work that they were advertising in the store window. The game finally comes out and the dude behind the counter says the truck with the art work got delayed and would be there tomorrow, a week passes and it's still not there. So I called them up and this is what they told me:

"I'm sorry, the company who produced the art cells backed out, they never existed."

So I ask why they advertised the art work in the store window and the guy tells me, "Well, the poster says 'while supplies last', we never guaranteed it to you".
Click to expand...
Oh god. These. They were 20,000 made. Gamestop couldn't be bothered to distribute them properly so some stores got way more than they needed while others got none (plus some employees were happy to give them away to anybody who asked for them furthering the problem). Apparently most Gamestop pre-order gifts have similar problems.

But yeah the charge $5 more for Nintendo published is just a terrible practice.
 
Naked Prime said:
Funny thing is we get shit if people don't fill out those surveys.
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Being the good little consumer that I am, I (almost) always fill those out. I'm even enough of a schmuck to agree to surveys over the telephone, too. :(

Buttons said:
I am still amazed at how Gamestop manages to survive in Europe, particularly here in Germany. They are so expensive and even used games are expensive. Example:
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This reminds me of the time I was back in Sweden and saw a PS2 game that I wanted in Gamestop. I was on my way to the cashier when I glanced to my side at the new games... Turned out that they had the exact same game, new, but for considerably less. Why adjust your prices when you can make more money? Sigh.


Oh, and another thing. I hate having my cases eviscerated and then shoddily put together again, perhaps with a stray sticker hither and thither. This is all fine and dandy for used games, but I do not tolerate it for new games. I understand that it's for security purposes, but damnit, I want my games untouched and factory sealed. (I don't know if this is the case in every GS, but I believe I've seen it in the ones I've been to in the US, as well.)
 
They are to expensive, 95% of the time I can go into a normal store that's not a specialized game store and buy the game cheaper.
 
Wario64 said:
Legitimate question: why do you guys still shop at Gamestop?
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Only store that's close to me for video games, I would order online but I am an impatient man I want my purchases immediately. I could go to Walmart but the redneckery of that place irritates me to no end, I could go to Best Buy but the only two that are near me bombard you with additional purchase inquiries worse then gamestop "Hey nice copy of fallout you got there, how bout we look at some HD TV's to go with it?" some of the add-ons they attempt at those places make no since. I could try Kmart but honestly I literally forget they even exist anymore...
 
Gutting NEW games, storing the disc elsewhere until it's purchase time, putting a superglued sticker on the *new* case, which looks like the clerks wiped their asses on it a few times despite being "new" (the hell is that thin film of sticky brown Gamestop funk that's always on the boxes...?) Seriously, what the hell is up with that? What's wrong with simply selling a factory shrinkwrapped copy like every other store does?

And I don't know if anyone else's Gamestop does this - but mine NEVER guarantees you'll get a preorder bonus. I ask about those and the response is always something along the lines of, "Well, you can have one if we get any in... maybe." Of course, they never get any in, and you'll get nothing but just the game on release day. This is why I always order online if a game includes a bonus.
 
I don't buy new games at Gamestop at all (Best Buy, Target, or Amazon), but the used selection is tough to beat on the 360. I rarely buy new games on the 360 because the price drops so juch on used in a few months, plus I still refuse to pay 60 bucks for a game anyway.

However, I hate their used game prices on Wii & Gamecube. They are pricing them as if it were still 2007 and everything is selling like hotcakes. I wind up almost always buying a new older Wii game for cheaper than Gamestop sells them used.
 
Jroderton said:
That they always try to get me to buy more things.

On a positive, my local Gamestop had 2 very attractive girls working there today. I was very surprised.
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Mine has had rise in Attractive female employment, lately as well. Gamestop really wants my business lol.

I hate my Gamestop as well. It's so........SMALL. Literally having to shuffle past 13 8yr old kids, soccer moms, the 30 yr old gamer trading in his STACK of PS2 games next to his angry girlfriend with arms folded across her chest in anger and contempt of his hobby.

I've pretty much sworn off Gamestop. Only reason I'd not use my local shop now is for some pre-order bonuses that they cant achieve (Like Back to Karkand.)
 
if your store isn't giving you your preorder bonus call customer support and complain. I'm not gonna lie and say we don't take them, but.......That should happen only if all pre-order customers have been guaranteed theirs. There are douche bags in my district that I know take that shit and tell customers they are SOL. While there are perks they are not meant to be had at the expense of the customer. But I (as well as a lot of others) don't really fit in the Gamestop mold so you got a 30% chance of getting people whom give a shit about you.
 
They are generally the most expensive store when it comes to games, especially their preowned stuff. Thats it really.


If they had a good deal I wouldn't hesitate to buy from their store but that rarely happens.

Got a £20 gamestop gift card for my birthday though so i'll be buying somthing from their store soon!
 
there's something not to hate about gamestop?

the last thing they have did that made me angry was that they did not accepted two of my games for a promotion..games that in their site were clairly showed as "good" for that offer....last time in my life i've trid to buy a game at gamestop.

and their prices are legalized robbery
 
-Gutting new copies
-The employees who slight customers on pre-order bonuses
-The small, claustrophobic storefronts

I've found Gamestop customer service to be hit-or-miss. Some of their employees are great, while others, not so much.

That said, I haven't walked into an actual Gamestop store in over a year. And one is literally located across the street from where I live.
 
I guess pushing the preorders is what annoys me the most. I went in one yesterday to buy a memory stick and Hot Shots Golf for my PSP, and the employee asked me if I wanted to preorder Modern Warfare 3 and Uncharted 3. How do you go from Hot Shots Golf to MW3 and U3 ?? Recommend preordering a similar game at least. I know they have to do it, but it annoys me.

And anyway, I've never had a problem getting a game on launch day without a preorder. I even got a copy of Halo:Reach on launch day without preordering, so I don't really see the point of doing it.
 
The only thing that's really bad is the gutting. PC games aren't that great at retail, just the way it is. But reward cards? Asking if you want to reserve something? That's retail.

The 2 Gamestops I go to around here are normal game stores, nothing wrong with the employees. It's a corporate game store, not too different from Software Etc, Babbages or EB was in the past. Who needs the drama.
 
I find there's nothing wrong with Gamestop/EB in Canada. Get quite a few good deals there. Probably spent less than a hundred this year and came out with Blur, Split Second, Reach Legendary and a new 360.
 
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