screwing with pre-order pushers

[monkeydeew]

i have this one gs i frequent where the 'preorder king' resides. aside from constantly bragging about how awesome his numbers are, ive seen him squeeze pre-orders out of every type of customer (kids, moms, older gamers, everyone). of course ive heard him say everything from, halo 3 will be rare to find, madden will be the greatest game in the world, and gs will only receive such and such numbers of the game and itd be 'stupid' to not preorder. hes also not above playing the sympathy card claiming his job is on the line and he will also make you feel like the fonz if you preorder anything, until you walk in again and hes back to being a blood sucking vampire.

i hate this guy and screw with him by teasing lots of preorders and never coming through but ill never actively talk crap when he is spitting his game to some trick. whats the worst he could do? is it possible to get banned from a gs?

[Derrick1979]

i have this one gs i frequent where the 'preorder king' resides. aside from constantly bragging about how awesome his numbers are, ive seen him squeeze pre-orders out of every type of customer (kids, moms, older gamers, everyone). of course ive heard him say everything from, halo 3 will be rare to find, madden will be the greatest game in the world, and gs will only receive such and such numbers of the game and itd be 'stupid' to not preorder. hes also not above playing the sympathy card claiming his job is on the line and he will also make you feel like the fonz if you preorder anything, until you walk in again and hes back to being a blood sucking vampire.

i hate this guy and screw with him by teasing lots of preorders and never coming through but ill never actively talk crap when he is spitting his game to some trick. whats the worst he could do? is it possible to get banned from a gs?

Wow, why do you care so much does this interupt your day to day life? Say no and walk away because you live in the store and hear all his angles is not his fault it is his job..

[monkeydeew]

lol im not complaining, im lucky enough where my job skills are above being a register monkey.

[Derrick1979]

lol im not complaining, im lucky enough where my job skills are above being a register monkey.

Ahh so they wont let you on a register your a stock boy? :D just kidding

[monkeydeew]

lol but really whats the worst they can do to this d!ck tease customer?

[diaeresis]

If you must interact with him, just make conversation. He's the one on the script, not you. The GS employees around here don't generally push preorders unless a gm is behind the counter with them, but the last time one did, I asked him, "Why? Best Buy will have plenty." I was stating the obvious and he still had no idea what to say.

Alternatively, one (1) Rube Goldberg machine involving magazine racks and/or glitter.

[monkeydeew]

lol, lemon head

[yukine]

Call the DM, and tell him/her about it. I'm pretty sure they want employees to push pre-orders but only to a certain extent, sometimes it goes into customer harassment territory which a DM won't be happy about.

[NismoZZzz]

Call the DM, and tell him/her about it. I'm pretty sure they want employees to push pre-orders but only to a certain extent, sometimes it goes into customer harassment territory which a DM won't be happy about.

Unless he does something totally and utterly illegal, they don't care.

[Master Shake]

Yeah, I've worked at an EB games for almost two years and I've heard people say all kinds of stuff to get people to reserve something. Not too many people in the store I worked at though since everyone that work there either quit or got fired in about a month. They pretty much make you say ridiculous shit to people just to get reserves.

[Loyaltist Shinra]

If you want to mess with people at GameStop just hang around all day and tell people about the games and try to makes some sales. That makes them mad to see people doing there job for free.

[monkeydeew]

If you want to mess with people at GameStop just hang around all day and tell people about the games and try to makes some sales. That makes them mad to see people doing there job for free.

are you cereal

[Caliburn]

If he tries to con you into making a preorder you don't want, give him a deer-in-headlights look, twist your mouth to the side, chewing the inside of your mouth ruefully and ask, "Que?"

Repeat until he gives up.

[Lobsterjohnson]

If a GS employee started giving me some sob story about his job, I would tell him: "I don't give a fuck about you."

[Unickuta]

Meh, I do it for a minute if I'm in the mall and I'm bored.

[Poolking99]

Act like your interested and ask him a few questions like whats this madden game you keep hearing about all about? Then as he goes into his speel, just stare blankly and start walking out the door backwards, ignoring questions like where are you going? are you ok??

[monkeydeew]

there are def. employees that resent the hell out of me. as a result they take forever in finding game disks i buy, give me 'what are you retarted?' looks, and talk over me. DIX

[Yaxley]

I hear this stuff about GS all the time, but at any of the ones I shop at, all I ever get is the standard, "Are there any games coming out that you'd like to preorder?" line when I'm checking out. I say no and they drop the subject.

Maybe I'm just lucky.

[Dead of Knight]

I'm pretty sure they want employees to push pre-orders but only to a certain extent
Bullshit. Srsly. They don't care if you lie or harass.

[Radioactive_Man]

If you want to mess with people at GameStop just hang around all day and tell people about the games and try to makes some sales. That makes them mad to see people doing there job for free.

I wouldn't be mad, I don't mind getting paid to do nothing.

[monkeydeew]

i know gs is just doing their job but man is cancelling ten preorders the only way i can get them to stop treating me like a hooker in a tshirt saying 'free blowjobs'

[Lobsterjohnson]

I wouldn't be mad, I don't mind getting paid to do nothing.

Yeah, in fact, I think I might have a better time doing something else!

[yukine]

Bullshit. Srsly. They don't care if you lie or harass.
Maybe GS stores in Arizona are different, because I called a DM regarding a pre-order pusher constantly harassing customers and he was fired about a week later. Maybe he was fired for another reason, and it's just a coincidence?

Either way, that particular employee was the only one I've ever had any issues with... usually they'll ask "Do you want to pre-order anything, blah and blah is coming out?" to which I reply "Nope" and that's the end of it.

[monkeydeew]

the nicer the employee, the more inclined i am to give them preorders ill actually keep. girls always get preorders from me :)

[captainfrizo]

There was one employee at the local Gamestop (haven't seen him in a while) that would always push pre-orders on everyone, including myself. One time he asked me if I wanted to pre-order Rainbow Six Vegas. My response: "That's a great idea! I'll go pre-order it Best Buy since I'm going there next."

During another visit he asked if I wanted to pre-order another game (forget which one), I told him thanks for advice and I'll pre-order it at Amazon that night.

He never asked me for pre-orders again.

[monkeydeew]

is it true that gs employees compete against other gs stores and kinda against each other for hours? if so eek that sux like monkey bux

[Skelah]

I guess if you realy wanna have fun and ur bored enough..hang out and counter his attempts at getting pre orders.

You overhear his convo about any game walk up close wait to ask a random question and interupt all friendly like 'realy?' I heard about that but actualy my buddy works at circuit city and there gonna get a special shipment deal so they wont run out of this game and its gonna be 5 dollars cheaper.

Just bullshit the way he is be friendly not do forward there should be nothing he can do about this.

Also as someone mentioned waste his time ask about things he has to walk across the store for have him check the back for items ask him infront of customers so he feels like if he doesnt do it hes gonna look bad.

[monkeydeew]

i think thats a little too dickish for me, so far i like the idea of agreeing to pre-order lots of games but then refusing to pay money b/c its not called 'pre-buying'

[WeaponX2099]

Use pennies to preorder with. Pay off a whole game with change.

[NismoZZzz]

Use pennies to preorder with. Pay off a whole game with change.

From a retail point of a view, that's annoying. From a gamers point of view, f-ing priceless.

I hate the kids who come rolling in with a piggy bank and buy something. Well one time this kid came in and bought some games, but forgot his piggy bank!! Well, i felt bad so I gave the kid 30 days to get it. Two weeks later I ordered Dominios at the store with it. He never came again and asked for it.

[IAmTheCheapestGamer]

From a retail point of a view, that's annoying. From a gamers point of view, f-ing priceless.

I hate the kids who come rolling in with a piggy bank and buy something. Well one time this kid came in and bought some games, but forgot his piggy bank!! Well, i felt bad so I gave the kid 30 days to get it. Two weeks later I ordered Dominios at the store with it. He never came again and asked for it.

LOL That's horrible, though the one time I got a speeding ticket in NY state, I was gonna send them a Priority Mail flat rate box containing rolls of pennies to pay my fine, since I felt the fine was unwarranted. I was going DOWN a hill, with the brakes to the floor with my one friends car and I still couldn't slow their damned car down to the current speed limit, but I guess they would've viewed that as an excuse, huh? Plus, the cop was a total dickhead when we pulled over.

Oh and it happened in the town of Bethel(the home of peace and love, the original Woodstock concert in 1969). But I changed my mind, since I'm in NY state often for biz, so I didn't wanna end up being 'marked'. Plus, I learned that any points for the ticket don't cross over, so I figured f it.

As for pre ordering anything, the only time I do that is if the store offers up something decent as a pre order 'gift' or whatever. I not only nabbed a Transformers movie poster for my TF PS2 pre order, but also a copy of the Disgaea 2 guide among other pennied guides.

If I wanna really be a dick, I could just go and ask for what Casey Lynch said to ask them about in the issue of PSM in exchange for a pre order. You give me free shit, I might drop 5 bones on some title I'll never pick up.

[SaraAB]

The only reason I would give a pile of change is if I REALLY hated the specific clerk that I was paying in change, I would not do this at random to a particular store because then it is just annoying. Most stores here will not accept rolled coin or large amounts of coin either and they have that posted.

If they were being really pushy do the free item thing, my EB has tons of free items behind the counter that they never give out, and it would be nice if they gave some to me every so often ya know, because I am a regular customer and I could be taking my business to amazon to save the tax and get free shipping....

In fact I did give a pile of change once, but it was because of a totally unrelated reason. I am not sure what I bought or where it was, but we had just finished cleaning out my aunt's apartment, and as payment for the work I got to keep all the change I found. Well there was A LOT of change. I came home with a gym bag full of pennies that I could not even lift... hey money is money and I most certainly was not going to leave it behind. This was back when coinstar was not around! I am pretty sure what I bought was under 10$ though and it was not paid all in pennies or anything like that, but yes it was paid for in change.

[thetoxicone]

LOL That's horrible, though the one time I got a speeding ticket in NY state, I was gonna send them a Priority Mail flat rate box containing rolls of pennies to pay my fine, since I felt the fine was unwarranted. I was going DOWN a hill, with the brakes to the floor with my one friends car and I still couldn't slow their damned car down to the current speed limit, but I guess they would've viewed that as an excuse, huh? Plus, the cop was a total dickhead when we pulled over.


That reminds me of when I tried to pay for 2 parking tickets from my college dorms with pennies (hey, lets have only half as many parking spots as we need so if you don't get there before five you are screwed and have to park in away student parking). Long story short after many fights with the ticket office they threat that I'd have to have a meeting with the dean I finally paid and the change went into the beer fund and on top of that when I finally did pay they didn't tell me about another ticket that must have fell off my car or been taken off by someone else, so two months later I get a letter saying I need to pay twice as much for that one.

[guinaevere]

is it possible to get banned from a gs?Sure is. Possible to be banned from any store.

Call the DM, and tell him/her about it. I'm pretty sure they want employees to push pre-orders but only to a certain extent, sometimes it goes into customer harassment territory which a DM won't be happy about.That isn't a bad idea. GameStops pre-order policy is crappy for its employees. Often times I'll ask in my local store if anyone needs a pre-order that day. If someone does, I'll put $5 on whatever. It turns them into sales people pitching what GS wants them to sell, rather than serving the customer.

That said, the dork Monkey is talking about would bother me, too. I once had a girl in some clothing shop trying to get me to be a pair of socks or something I didn't need with whatever I came in to buy. "No, thanks for asking." I wound up getting a song and dance about the competition that district was having and a sob story so I'd be inclined to help her out. I told her I still didn't need the socks, but I now needed the DMs number and CS number to complain about that stores sales tactics.

I let the DM and Customer Service line know that I wouldn't shop there from that point on, owing to the excessively pushy sales. As I never returned, I couldn't say if my complaining changed anything or not. But I felt better.

Use pennies to preorder with. Pay off a whole game with change.Awesome. I'd love to see that happen.

my EB has tons of free items behind the counter that they never give out, and it would be nice if they gave some to me every so often ya know, because I am a regular customer and I could be taking my business to amazon to save the tax and get free shipping....Sugar, have you ever asked for anything? You have to be recognized by the staff by now, it couldn't hurt to ask, "is that an extra blahblahblah? could I have it?"

[monkeydeew]

today in line while waiting to return a new game with intentions of preordering something better i had to wait an extra five mins while the register monkeys berated soccer moms into preordering games, which they didnt.

[IAmTheCheapestGamer]

That reminds me of when I tried to pay for 2 parking tickets from my college dorms with pennies (hey, lets have only half as many parking spots as we need so if you don't get there before five you are screwed and have to park in away student parking). Long story short after many fights with the ticket office they threat that I'd have to have a meeting with the dean I finally paid and the change went into the beer fund and on top of that when I finally did pay they didn't tell me about another ticket that must have fell off my car or been taken off by someone else, so two months later I get a letter saying I need to pay twice as much for that one.

That reminds me of the nice 1 hour free parking spot right in front of our local job center. I thought myself lucky to find it open a couple times in a row and had figured I'd be in and out in no time.

I went into the center to find no one but employees there, so I figured I could do a quick job search on their network and get some referrals, in and out QUICK. WRONG!!!!

Apparently half the damned center was gone on lunch(at 10:30 am, no less) and the other half were too busy bullshitting about the game last night to even notice me. So, I came out to find a nice fluorescent yellow ticket on my window. It was only for $5 if I paid within 24 hours and I did, but the whole point of me going TO the fuckin job center was to get a job to MAKE money, not have to spend it because some vindictive metermaid actually did their job, unlike the lazy fucks in the job center. But hey, their jobs are secure....<shakes at how angry I was at those lazy f's that day>

It's still a sore spot for me, in case you couldn't tell. LOL But, did I learn my lesson.....NOOOOOOOOOOOO!! About a month later, same spot is WIDE open, so I pull in at around 9 am this time. I go into the job center, same deal, half the people aren't there, the other half are sitting there bullshitting. Ahhhhh, your fuckin tax dollars at work, I tell ya.

SO, after the SECOND $5 ticket, I finally learned my lesson and now, I wait till 10 am when the local mall opens down the street from there, park in there and then I can spend as LONG as I need to in that shithole till someone comes off their 2 hour coffee break to wait on me finally.

Ahhhhh state workers, what a bunch of lazy fucks in my area.

Mind you, I should thank them, since the one time I had to walk over from the mall, I found $100 in front of the damned place on the ground, so that was a nice bonus for me that day.

[jer7583]

I avoid all the BS by not going in there stores, and if I do, ensuring my headphones are on so that I won't get bothered.

[monkeydeew]

lol, jer

[mietha]

Use pennies to preorder with. Pay off a whole game with change.
LOL. That is fucking funny. I just might have to do that...

[guinaevere]

Ahhhhh state workers, what a bunch of lazy fucks in my area.And if they're like government workers in every other gov job, they're cold, rude and couldn't care less about their customers.

Lesson here, Iam. Don't expect the government to help. Ever. We help each other out and the job gets done faster, and hopefully it's a much more friendly time.

[wubb]

I avoid all the BS by not going in there stores, and if I do, ensuring my headphones are on so that I won't get bothered.

Please clean out your PM box and message me asap.

[monkeydeew]

do returns count 'as bad/not as bad/neutral' as preorder cancellations? i ask b/c my fave 'numbers king' recently did a return for me. i clearly told him the reason for the return was 'did not like' but on the receipt it says 'defective.' is this a way to fluff numbers or just a typo?

[Tsukento]

Here's a simple thing. They try to pressure a pre-order out of you by telling you it'll be difficult to find, simply ask them why it is that a store that specializes in gaming would have a far inferior amount of a supposed upcoming blockbuster game, while a store like Target or Best Buy (which specialize in other areas and not just video games) will pretty much be guaranteed to have enough copies. Ask why it is that a game store will only order enough for pre-orders taken for a game that will sell millions on the first few days and not enough for everyone to simply enter their store and purchase.

That whole pre-ordering business is just GameStop's way of taking your money and rubbing it all over themselves considering they know they won't make a whole lot by just new games and have to make a profit off of used games and pre-order sales.

[GrimNecroWizard]

Since this is a topic about pre-ordering, I thought I'd ask this here.

If I trade in a game towards Madden to get the extra 20%, would I be able to go in to a different EB/Gamestop or the same one after a day or two and say I just found out I'm getting this for my birthday or some excuse like that and ask for the credit to get RE4 for the Wii? Or would they take off the 20%?

If anyone has a way to get that 20% let me know. Thanks

[reibeatall]

is it true that gs employees compete against other gs stores and kinda against each other for hours? if so eek that sux like monkey bux
Yeah, at my store, if my employees don't get good numbers, they don't get good hours. It really sucks.

BUT, there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Starting next week, Subs and Reserves aren't going to be major focus items for stores. Finally, I can actually do my damn job and help customers and sell video games.

Yeah, the preorders are bullshit for the most part. We're not going to sell out of Madden, flat out. Halo 3, probably not, however I'm not sure about the Legendary edition. But in regards to niche games like Persona 3, we actually DO sell out of those pretty quickly. I mean, you could always wait the extra week or find another store that does have them, but that's neither here nor there. Or maybe that's the entire point...

[contej85]

If you want to mess with him, preorder a bunch of games when he isnt there, then come in and cancel when he is there alone. Its his numbers it hurts.

*edit* there's a dick who gives me crap when I come in an d don't buy something in 2 seconds, so I preordered a bunch from someone else, and came in and canceled the next day when he was there.

[monkeydeew]

If you want to mess with him, preorder a bunch of games when he isnt there, then come in and cancel when he is there alone. Its his numbers it hurts.

i'm not that big of a dick, plus im sure hed make it as long tedious and painful as possible. i just want to know why instead of taking the game back and putting it on the floor to sell, he decided to say it was defective.

[phear3d]

lol at this thread.

when hes there and talking about preorders and how awesome it'll be. ask random questions. ask why will it be awesome-mest than the current awesome-mer version in the market. play mind games. he'll eventually sweat and crack to say "well thats besides the point".

[GrimNecroWizard]

*edit* there's a dick who gives me crap when I come in an d don't buy something in 2 seconds, so I preordered a bunch from someone else, and came in and canceled the next day when he was there.
Haha, if there was someone that pissed me off I'd definitely get about 10 pre-orders and cancel them on that person, I bet it feels great to break their balls like that.

Monkey, it might have said defective because they might not do the trade in a used game before 7 days and get full credit back or whatever because my FFXII kept freezing and I went in and they said they weren't allowed to give me credit on a gift card let alone my cash back even though they didn't have another copy. I finally got them to give me the gift card after some bitching and moaning about how it's against their policy.

[yukine]

I pre-ordered a game a couple of months back, and somehow lost the receipt (very unlike me) how would I go about getting a refund? As I'm no longer interested in said game.

[loserboy]

I usually give preorders at my gamestop to the asst. manager...she takes care of me (penny guides, holds RPGs/games) and she's cute...(of course I'm 40 and married, so that doesn't do me any good)

[Tsukento]

I pre-ordered a game a couple of months back, and somehow lost the receipt (very unlike me) how would I go about getting a refund? As I'm no longer interested in said game.
You should still be in the system. Just provide them your info and they should be able to refund you the money. :)

[monkeydeew]

all you need is your phone number to cancel, and i think signature. they may say they cant give you your money back and can only switch it to another preorder, so just twist the knife more and youll eventually get your 5$ back

[Cornfedwb]

give me 'what are you retarted?' looks

No idea why they'd do something like that :roll:

[monkeydeew]

No idea why they'd do something like that :roll:

this happens when i go into a store after locating an item on the online product locator and ask why it isnt on the shelf. 9/10 times i go right at ten am and check before i leave the house. of course i get the obligatory 'the system is 2-3-7 days behind' i say no it isnt, they give me that look. corneater

[major maz]

same here

[reibeatall]

of course i get the obligatory 'the system is 2-3-7 days behind' i say no it isnt, they give me that look. corneater

Actually, yeah, it is.

[IAmTheCheapestGamer]

Only reason to drop a preorder, aside from if they give you some fantabulous pre order bonus(like a THICK art book or something) is if they're lax on the guides, since many employees will give you guides that pennied if you toss $5 down on a game.

But....soon as they say 'oh we can't sell or give those away', I'll go 'well then I can't give you MY $5 either, BYE'. And then I'll walk out. Not that it really matters to GS anyway, since there's always 20 patsies behind me who'll drop major bank on the next (list yearly title which people STILL buy in fuckin droves like idiots).

It's give n take, you let me take stuff that you're just gonna toss out ANYWAY and I'll give you a piddily $5 reserve and improve your numbers. Otherwise, there are other stores with games cheaper than what you pirates charge that I won't be hassled about pre-orders and grabbing an Edge card to get.

Although, with the employees at Kmart being as slow and reluctant to open the cases up as usual, it sometimes MIGHT be better to just go grab a used copy of the same games at GS instead of waiting the eternity for them to get ONE game out for me.

[monkeydeew]

Actually, yeah, it is.

i dunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnno

last week when dk2 dropped to 10 bucks, i drove to a gs farther than im accustomed to b/c none of the ones near me had any (i asked in person and saw the online locator said zero for these stores). that night i saw online that store inventory from where i got it dropped from 1-3 to 0. after a few days, i realized how much that game sucks so i returned it to one of the more local gs that had zero online. that night it went from 0 to 1-3.

I've also got TONS of cool games using the locator. the date on the yellow sticker is one day before the date on my reciept. i actually did this today to score twin snakes.

i think that the 2-3 day thing is something employees always say to ensure that employees get 1st dibbs on all cool stuff, which is ok b/c i guess thats the only perk of working for gs. i guess the item could have been stolen or defective, but then i would assume the store has sloppy inventory.

[Zingela]

the locator's accuracy seems to be pretty random, it'll be dead on for somethings quickly, others will take forever to show. Also, it seems to also count defective items as "in stock" until they're shipped out to warehouse. I got so many calls about Marvel vs Capcom 2 for PS2 after my store got back an unplayable disc from a return.

[monkeydeew]

yeah the locator is probably random. its just weird to ask and be told 'it was sold 2 days ago' and then 5 mins later be told 'it was stolen' by the same guy

[integralsmatic]

wow i came late to this thread. another GS horror story? i wonder how many more we are gonna get by weekends end.

if they push pre orders on me...i just say no and get on with it. its like car salesman...they are told to push shit on you and thats what i bet GS employees are told what to do. Blame the ugly big brother corporation for the pushing and not the employees..they are only doing their job.

let him be cocky...if he got people to pre order..more power to him...that means he is doing his job and people are dumb enough to give him 5 bucks for a game that they may not even pre order for a life time.

EDIT:
and your story is one reason why i dont go back to that store as much as i used to.

[Theduck]

Waaaah! Waaaaah! The employee is doing his job! WAAAAH! Go get a fucking life and stop being one of those douchebags that hang around the stores all day long.

[monkeydeew]

whoa calm down buddy, a solid online product locator and not being constantly harassed for crap i've denied 5 times already is what will keep me from hanging out at the store all day

p.s. hows that Bach degree coming along? :)