Your Worst EB or Gamestop Experience in Detail.

[Rodimus]

I personally have had several, but one pisses me off the most.

I was suffling through the PS1 games at a local EB and found a Dragon Ball GT. It didn't have instructions or a back insert, it was just the game. But as many of you know, it's very rare and in damand, or at least at the time it was. And it was only $19.99. So I decided to invest in it then I'd plan to put it on eBay and make a quick buck. I brought it to the counter, and the EB employees at the counter recognized this game and started saying, "This game is awsome," and,"Wow Dragon Ball games are the best fighting games." I stood silently trying not to roll my eyes, and purchased my game, and left swiftly to get away from the two goobers.

Walking out to my car I decided to check the back of the CD for scratchs. So I rip through all the damn tape they wrap around it. (You know the "Bring it Back within 14 days if seal isn't broken" crap. Open it and to my surprise it was the worthless Japanesse version. So I bring it back to the two goobers and they ask me how I know it's the Japanesse version. I told them, "I used to work at a game store and we delt alot in these crappy Dragon Ball games," Then I ponted to some tiny text on the CD that said "For use in Japanese PSX only." In conclusion I got my money back, but it was a major let down cause I could've made a quick $70.

[maxflight]

Hmmm.. this is your worst experience? I personally don't think it's THAT bad.

[guessed]

While I can understand your disappointment, that is hardly a bad experience. And one should ALWAYS check for scratches on used games before buying, IMNSHO.

[Scrubking]

In detail?

[Rodimus]

I've had several bad experiences, this one just pissed me off the most. I guess cause I thought I had gold, but actually had fools gold.

[Rodimus]

Yeah, I should've checked right away, but didn't think about it till walking out to my car.

[maxflight]

you were too happy =P

[Rodimus]

Yep, I was alittle too excited, so anyone else wanna vent?

[jdpimp]

My worst experience is just as bad as rodimus's. I have a friend who is an asst. mgr at a gamestop and he had not been working there for long. He was going to get me an Xbox with his discount. I give him my money, he goes to buy it, only to find out that his discount doesn't apply to the systems!!!!!!1!!!1!

I had to pay full price like every other chump... boy was I pissed
:D

[doraemonkerpal]

honestly, these 2 experiences aren't nearly half as bad as the others i've seen... but to each their own :D

[evilmax17]

Uhhh last Xmas, they had big huge signs up that said "Buy 2 GCN games, get a $10 rebate, buy 3, get a $20 rebate", with pictures of the games. So i got 2 of the games, and asked for the rebate. They had no idea what I was talking about. So I brought them over to the sign and pointed at it, yet they still haven't heard of it. So they told me that they would call around, and that they would call me when they got word. So I get a call to say that they should be getting the rebate forms "tommorow", and to come by. So I do, and when I get there, they're the wrong forms...and they still have no idea about the promotion. Since then I refused to give them any real business (I'll still buy a $10 Space Channel 5 or Bombastic tho).

[Rodimus]

honestly, these 2 experiences aren't nearly half as bad as the others i've seen... but to each their own :D

If it intresting then post em.

I think people are taking this the wrong way. It's a place to vent, not a competition.

[Nirvanaguy777]

For me my worst experience was, I reserved Godzilla destroy all monsters for gamecube, I reserve all my games for the phonecall they give you so I remeber its out. I never got a phonecall and realized the game had been out for a week, I went in and asked for it and they had not only sold my copy but insisted they had called my the day it came out which is a lie cause I was home that day and never got any message, they wouldnt even give me the 5 bucks I put down on it back, dam gamestop.

[Mr. Anderson]

Not really my worst experience, but one of my most frustrating: I walked into GS one day and the clerks wouldn't let me in without a parent. I'm like ok, fine. I come back 5 minutes later with my mom, and I see TWO FIVE YEARS OLDS in there destroying an NES controller with NO parents at all. Man, I went off on those two doucebags so fast (the clerks, not the kids). They never told me not to come in again.

[Rodimus]

For me my worst experience was, I reserved Godzilla destroy all monsters for gamecube, I reserve all my games for the phonecall they give you so I remeber its out. I never got a phonecall and realized the game had been out for a week, I went in and asked for it and they had not only sold my copy but insisted they had called my the day it came out which is a lie cause I was home that day and never got any message, they wouldnt even give me the 5 bucks I put down on it back, dam gamestop.

Sounds familiar

[jdpimp]

my problem, while true, was in jest as it wasn't a really big deal.

[doraemonkerpal]

honestly, these 2 experiences aren't nearly half as bad as the others i've seen... but to each their own :D

If it intresting then post em.

I think people are taking this the wrong way. It's a place to vent, not a competition.

i didn't mean to sound negative. that's how come i added the smiley face. i was just saying that i've heard some bad stories (racist employees, power tripping, etc.) and that these 2 stories, imho, aren't that bad. i'm not putting down your stories by any means.

[Rodimus]

doraemonkerpal is forgiven :)

[fitzcain]

I had a bad experience at the babbages/gamestop at mont/mall in bethesda once.....(and on top of that for some reason the store always smells like cat pee, go figure)........I was browsing the pc games for what was new or newly discounted, cause I was just starting to be a CAG, and found mechwarior 3 gold with a 4.99 sticker on it, so brought it up front to buy it, and he rings it up from the bottom code, not the sticker on the spine that I spotted it from, and tells me that will be 14.99. Whoa, back up, sticker right there says 4.99.......he says and I quote " well people change stickers all the time, theres no way to know you didnt just do that"............ :evil: ..............................weeeeeeeeeeeeeeellll lllllll, this was the wrong approach........I said no I didnt and I have been in the store less than five minutes and asked if he normally accuses his customers of this kind of stuff, because I will contact the district manager, and report him (which I did), he said they just have to go with what the computer says, it is obviously a pricing error, at best, still insuating I did something. I told him to bring the manager out and he comes lumbering out, and reiterates what the other guy said, and says they could be fired for selling things below price. I tell him he should honor their stickers or they will lose my business and others......looking back on it I kinda enjoyed telling this guy all this in a loud voice in front of the other customers, and that store is always packed.......(regardless the price marked was 4.99, and if an error, I get the price and he should fix the rest if any)(I beleive it turned out to be gold was 14.99 and the orig release of mech 3 was 4.99)......I think he got fired eventually, cause I dont ever seem him in there anymore when I go by there, although I dont frequent that store too often because of the afformentioned cat pee.

[Alpha2]

I've vented on this before but a while back when Final Fantasy online came out for the PC I went out and bought a PC dual analog controller (because frankly, that's how the game was meant to be played).

It was a logitech and I'd gotten it rather the thrustmaster brand that I really wanted but compUSA had none of them, something I found strange since they used to have loads of them. I searched around for a week and all any store had was the Logitech brands and The M$ controllers that I wasnt interested it owning. Anyway I eventually end up buying it froman EB for 20 bucks and after about a month or so of use the controller craps out on me. The anolog sticks becomes too sensitive and controling my character and the camera becomes the true definition of the word "hassle" it was past the point were I could return it so I decided I'd get a new control pad that wasnt a piece of crap Logitech.

This time I went to EB where I found a very simple looking dual analog (made in china) with a little status screen on the front (probably for programing macros) for 14 bucks. I brought it home and after strugging with the damnable blister pack plastic shell that every one likes to sell electronics in nowadays that you need scissors or an x-acto blade to open, I installed the drivers but something happened... my WinXP wouldnt recognize the controller AT ALL. so I went to the web site looking for assistance. There was none, not even a mention of the product! so I emaled them and waited a week, no response. At this point I check my receipt for my cut off return date which is exactly 14 days after I purchased it! I now only have about 5 days to fix it or return it.

Rather than freak out I call up the store and ask them if it'd be possible to bring in the controler to exchange for another since it DID NOT WORK, the register monkey on the phone says in a very helpful manner "sure just bring the receipt and you can return it." HIS EXACT WORDS.

I finally get back to the EB, receipt in hand, controller, instructions, driver disk and what's left of the plastic blister package that you have to practically destroy to open and the new register monkey (cute but still a register monkey) says that they cant offer me an refund because the package has been opened. The only thing they can offer is a replacement control of the same price or greater(I'd still have to pay the differeance).

Huh? But the controller dosent work, Why would I want another one of the same brand?! And how the hell am I supposed to know it dosent work unless I destroy the stupid freaking blisterpack to get TO the controler??! Finally the guy I talked to on the phone shows up and I explain it to him AGAIN, I do not WANT another of the same brand because it probably will not work and there is NO consumer support from the manufacturor! He asks if I'd like to speak to the manager, DAMN RIGHT I WOULD.

The manager tells me he can give me credit, (yay!) But only for a control device of the same type (ie. another controller) which sucked because they only had 3 brands of freaking controller!!! The Logitech I vowed not to buy another of, the controller I just brought back and a more expensive logitech that I sure as hell wasnt going to pay extra for when they already had such a stellar track record in my mind. The manaer would NOT Change his position, I didnt even want my money back! I asked him if he could atleast move the credit over to a game, he said no, WTF!? I'm still buying something from them it's just not this damn controller that dosent freaking WORK! but NOOOO they wont budge on this ridiculous freaking policy!

After about 30minutes I finally find a usb optical mouse for the same price (which frankly I didnt need)and walk to the regsiter to hopfully exchange the controller for this technical "control device" they allow it and I leave. and Electronic Boutique can KISS MY ASS for I will never shop there again for ANY REASON. THEY'RE DEAD TO ME.

...:?

[PsyClerk]

I can understand the parent-kid thing. Some stores have a policy of 'no more than two children in store at a time unless accompanied by parent.' If they had that policy, then you were putting them over the limit. Sucks, and it's rather stupid for a game store.

Anyhow, I haven't had any really bad EB experiences. However, when KOTOR came out, I stupidly tried to find it that first weekend. EB was the only store nearby that had a copy, and it was supposedly on hold for a pre-order. But since the guy who was working (think it was the manager) knew I spent a good bit of money with them, he let me have it. Not straight out mind you, he had to consider it first. Still, thought it was cool.

[doraemonkerpal]

doraemonkerpal is forgiven :)

O:) LOL!

[guessed]

I preordered KOTOR when it first came out, then when I got to the store, they told me they sold my copy to someone who spends a lot of money there.

/joking

[doraemonkerpal]

I preordered KOTOR when it first came out, then when I got to the store, they told me they sold my copy to someone who spends a lot of money there.

/joking

LMAO!!! :P

[bruce_pwns_j00]

You don't even want to get me started I have a whole thread full.

[FaintDeftone]

I had a bad experience with them. It didn't stop me from doing business with them, but it really pissed me off.

When Medal of Honor: Frontline came out for the Xbox, I went to EB to buy a copy. When I came home with it I popped it into the Xbox and started playing. When I beat the 2nd level, the game kept giving me an error. I turned my Xbox off and tried again. I beat the level again and it gave me the error once again (right before the save screen). So I look at the disc, it's fine. I tried one more time and BAM error again.

So I go up to EB with my reciept and I tell them about the error and want to exchange it for another copy. The guy takes it and looks at the bottom of the disc and says "it looks fine... are you sure it's not your Xbox?" I said "no it's not my Xbox, because it does it at the same spot each time. If it was my Xbox, it would do it a random" and then he said "do any of your other games do this?" I said "uh no...".

The clerk then begins explaining to me about dirt in my Xbox. I once again tell him "no it's not my damn Xbox, this disc probably has a bad sector in it. I just want another copy" and then he gives me crap about how it could be my save file. I didn't use any cheats and I didn't use any cheat devices cause Xbox HAS NONE. After a few minutes of arguing with this guy, he then says "well it sounds like your Xbox is dirty, we have a cleaning kit for $10 here, would you like to try this?" and I said "no I don't want a damn cleaning kit, my Xbox is fine, I just want another copy!"

Then the guy FINALLY exchanges the game and gives me a new disc. Then he asks again if I want the cleaning kit and I say NOOOOO. I come home and pop the new disc in the Xbox, play the level again, and it works fine.

I know more about video games than all of those morons put together in there. It's like they think you are an idiot and give me dumb reasons for a game not working. I would know if it was my Xbox or my save file, it was not. I haven't seen that clerk ever since so luckly he probably got the boot.

[YoshiFan1]

I pre-ordered a PS2 in June 2000 at EB. I was supposedly guarnteed to get the system at launch.

The launch of the system comes and they tell me they don't have enough systems and they will work their way down the list. I was annoyed because they said I would get the system at launch but since everyplace was sold out, and I didn't camp out for the system with some friends because I thought I was getting the pre-order from EB.

I call back next week, still not up to my name.

Next week, the same story.

This went on every week when I called until about the the beginning of January. I was really starting to get fusturated with EB.

In January, I call again and what do they tell me?

That they had already passed my name on the list! They claim that they had called me and since I never picked up the system, they gave it to someone else.

At this point I was furious.

It was bad enough that it had been 2+ months since the system launch and I still didn't have the system but they lied by saying they called me.

I gave them BOTH my cell phone and house phone number so I would be sure they would contact me as soon as they got the system in.

I called EB's corporate headquarter and explained the situation.

The next day I get a call from the EB store and what do they have for me? A PS2 system. I ended up just buying the system and a memory card from them, no games.

I could tell the manager was kind of annoyed I didn't buy any games with the system but there was no way I was going to buy any games from them after that experience (plus I had already picked up Ridge Racer V for $36 and Moto GP for $27 from EToys.com going out of business sale, those were great prices at the time since all PS2 games were still $49.99).

Because of that, I decided I would never buy a full priced game at EB again. I still shop at EB but will never buy anything more expensive than a $10 game from them.

[PsyClerk]

Guessed you stole my schtick!

[Rodimus]

I know this has probably happened to several of you. I will use an example game for this story such as Raiden Project for PSX.

You go to EB or Gamestop and find a preowned Raiden Project you've been looking for or not. But regardless you decide to get it because it's a great game, fairly rare, It'd be a nice addition to your collection, It's complete with the BIG PSX BOX and it's cheap! You hand the case over to the EB or Gamestop employee then they try looking for it. After about 5 minutes of them looking through the draws, you think in the back of your mind (Damit, they don't have the CD.) They finally get up, and tell you ,"Sorry, guess we don't have this one."

You leave alittle pissed, but not a big deal. The bad part comes a week or two later when you go back to the same store and see the same "Raiden Project" case back on the wall. You pick it up again and try your luck, but nope, same ol' story, still no Raiden Project. Why do they put them back on the wall, even after they tell you they don't have it. It's not a big deal, but it's really annoying, and it seems to happen to me every time I buy a game at EB or Gamestop that would be nice in my collection. For example here is a list of games that they had the case for, but not the actual CD:

Raiden Project
Sonic Mega Collection (This game recently became hard to find around where I live)
Legend of Mana
Battle Arena Toshinden 3
Lunar SSS PSX
Jumping Flash
Elemental Gearbolt

They're probably more but I can't remember.

[PsyClerk]

What the hell? Where the hell did they get the box if they don't have the game? I think that's more a case of a lazy/stupid employee. I'd raise hell if that happened.

[VIP]

The first story wasn't bad at all. You made the mistake of buying a Japanese game, and then got a full refund. What is there to be pissed about? I'd understand if they refused to refund your money, but that's not the case.

[Rodimus]

The first story wasn't bad at all. You made the mistake of buying a Japanese game, and then got a full refund. What is there to be pissed about? I'd understand if they refused to refund your money, but that's not the case.

Sorry, I guess my story wasn't good enough for you :cry:

I'll try better next time, just for you, it's a promise.

[gamefreak117]

so a while back, Buffy 2 (Xbox) was like 19.99 before other stores at EB... Since I wanted to go to my friends house afterward, and he was following me, I decided to go to the local EB, which I don't go to much. So I took the bus there, and walked into the store. There were 2 employees talking to each other about some PS2 stuff. I took a Buffy 2 case, which was still labeled $49.99 and and brought it up to them. Not wanting to feel stupid, I first asked them to scan the price of it. For some dumb reason, as if he didn't know what it meant, he just said the sticker price is $49.99. I asked him to scan the price... but he says he scanned the price earlier for some "other customer" and it was $49.99. He just went back to talking with his buddy, holding the case in his hand. I looked stupid in front of some other customers and all, especially with my friend behind me.

Since my friend lived like 15 minutes away from that certain EB games, I took the bus back to his house to use his computer. I printed out the price of the $19.99 Buffy 2 front page, and brought it back to the store by myself. I didn't feel like they were telling the truth, but that same employee said that they don't take web prices, and they are different from the store. I felt so pissed, but didn't show it. I then left the mall, and just took the bus to my local everyday same employee EB. Luckily they had the last copy in stock, and they took sold it to me at $19.99 though theres too was marked $49.99.

So the thing that really pisses me off are how typically the same corporate companies, except for gas stations selling gas, can seel stuff in the same area for different prices. lol, the funny thing was that about 2 weeks later, on Black Friday, Best Buy had it for $19.99, and I coulda GGCed it...

[Cmosfm]

The first story wasn't bad at all. You made the mistake of buying a Japanese game, and then got a full refund. What is there to be pissed about? I'd understand if they refused to refund your money, but that's not the case.

Sorry, I guess my story wasn't good enough for you :cry:

I'll try better next time, just for you, it's a promise.

I think his story is perfectly fine, it's the "worst gamestop/eb experience" thread , not the "only post a story if it really good and would fit the criteria that other CAGers need to consider it a bad experience" thread.

On that note, my "worst" experiences are these...

I wanted to buy Cool Boarders 3 for PSone, I take the case up to the front counter and they put a disk in a paper sleeve in the bag and put the case in the "stock" bin and wouldn't let me have the case....I didn't buy it.

The time I had a 5.00 coupon for Banjo Kazooie (GBA) and I found one mispriced at 9.99 and they wouldn't let me use the coupon.

The time in Gamestop when Enter The Matrix was getting ready to come out, and I was shopping, and the lackey in there would not stop following me around telling me about how GREAT this game will be and how I MUST pre-order because it will be GAME OF THE YEAR and has intrical plot points tieing in with the movie. He would NOT STOP, I swear, even after I told him I dont like The Matrix and I was only buying NES games that day.

That's about it, I love this thread, keep it up!

[controlcommerce]

This isn't a horror story but it's about getting disrepected by cocky store employees. Again this isn't very bad but it is my "worst" experience, so let me share.

Three months ago a EB games opened in my town. It was the first one in town and first one I've seen. I was happy becuase of my dislike towards Gamestop (mainly due to their rip mentality, unclean stores and asshole employees). I walk in to the new store, it's organized, clean and had a manager that knew a lot about the gaming business. Needless to say, I did a lot of buying there. Hell, that guy talked me into buy a Xbox, which I hated at the time and is now my favorite system.

Now that you got the background, lets get to the story at falt. Resident Evil was on the eve of coming out and I wanted it. I called EB and they told me it's was coming out on Thrusday (whatever date that was). So I walk in on Thrusday and ask for the game, they told me it got held back a day. I said "fine, I'll come back tomorrow." Then the manager asked me if I reserved it. I replied with a no. Then he told me I was out of luck because it was going to be sold out tomorrow. I told him the truth, "no offense but their's penty of other game stores around." Regardless of my warning, he took offense and got pissy at me. He replied "no offense but we and gamestop are the only stores that are going to have it tomorrow and theirs no way your going to get a copy because you didn't reserve it." As all you guys know, their is never a need to reserve a game unless it's a big motherfcker like GTA. I then told him that Best Buy might have it becuase that's where I pick up Spinter Cell: PT first day it was out. The proceeded to call me a lair because he use to work at best buy and supposably new release don't come out on the first day their. I got bad because this so called professional manager was beening arrogant with me and kept insitting I was shit out of luck getting this game for the next week. Well the next day I walk into Best Buy and bought Resident Evil. Their was over 50 copies for sell.

[Rodimus]

Thanks for everyones stories so far. It's been fun reading your experiences. And for those of you with only criticisim, I'm deeply sorry, but thanks anyways. We'll all try to make our EB/ Gamestop experences more horrible and entertaining for you next time. With that said I'll list another "bad" EB tale of doom!!! This story relates to "controlcommerce " earlier post about some EB/ Gamestop employees thinking they're "all knowing" video game gurus just becuase they work at a video game store.

I went to my local mall one night with my girlfriend and I dragged her into the EB there. This was when the N-Gage just came out. I purchased a Lunar Legend for Gameboy SP (which rocks) while the store was about to close. 2 EB employees where present. One was loooking for my game, the other chillin' out reading a magazine.

While waiting I picked up one of their little "EB Brochures" and began to look through it with my girlfriend. I got to a page about the N-Gage being $300 with one game or something. I said to my GF and I qoute,"Hah, N-Gage. Who would buy that, it sucks." The EB employee reading the magazine looked up and said, "What Sucks!"

Now i don't remember bringing him into my conversation, but I thought maybe my words torward the N-Gae were to hard. I continued to look through the magazine ignoring him. He persisted and asked again, "What Sucks!" I said ,"The N-gage." I stood waiting for his replay. after a moment this was his exact word(s),....."No".......

Now, their have been some awful systems, Game.Com, Jaguar, Virtual Boy (which I actually kinda liked alittle) but I think the N-Gage blows them all away. But please, this is my personal opinion.

I began to argue with the gentleman saying, "Yeah the N-Gage is great if you want to play all your favorite games at half the speed." The got more angry saying that it's not just a game system, but it's a cell phone as well. I told him, " Well then if you want a phone and a game system buy a Gameboy SP which is only $100, it clearly has better games, and then buy a really nice $200 phone, that will probably have better games than the N-Gage. Then he said, "It's got Multi-player over the a network." Now I don't know if this is true or not, cause I really don't care aboput the N-Gage but I replyed, "Yeah, but only with other people that HAVE an N-Gage, and their arn't to many of them since place like Walmart, Target and Best buy don't even bother selling them." He was getting pissed and told me that it's better than the Gameboy SP, you know it was just "blah blah blah" at that point. I let him vent, bought my game and then left wthout saying another word.

Now, I used to work at a video game store and the game that I love the most is KOF 98. Customers would always down talk that game. If they saw it playing, they'ed say, "It looks like old NES" or "The Graphics suck." But as an employee of "Gamers" I never tried to tell them wrong. It's just bad business, it creates a bad rep for the company, and I look like a big wee wee.

Thats alot of writing for one post.

[Dead of Knight]

Rodimus Donut's story is a good example of why EB (B&M) sucks even more than GS B&M. Almost all stores, except the largest ones, stopped selling N-Gage like a month and a half after it was out, because we KNEW it wasn't going to sell and we KNEW it was a horrible item. We even tell people this when they inquire about it. EB still sells the N-Gage and makes up lies about the system just to possibly sell one. They tried to do this to me when I went to their store a couple of days before it came out... the result was much like Rodimus's story, and I have not set foot into an EB since.

[alongx]

honestly, these 2 experiences aren't nearly half as bad as the others i've seen... but to each their own :D

If it intresting then post em.

I think people are taking this the wrong way. It's a place to vent, not a competition.

no competition? are you kidding? we paid for blood!

[Rodimus]

"Paid for blood?"

[MauMauProductions]

I get the N-Gage dealer all the time.......Always trying to sell one to me:

"But its a Cellphone-Game-Robot Maid-MP3 player-Organizer etc etc etc" and each time I show him my Samsung Pocket PC Phone and he gets off my case. Thats a portable GBA, SNES, Genesis etc etc and it does all that at around the same price (easy to find for $300- if you look and its well worth it. GBA is emulated at like 32FPS/60 which is with sound on, 40FPS without it.)

[chubs189]

my worst experience with gamestop is working with them lol. if u think shopping there is bad just imagine the stuff the employees put up with but yea before i worked for gamestop i once went into eb in nyc i was thinking bout reserving a dreamcast at that time and was gonna do it with eb but when the whole staff of like 3 guys were all on top of me i decided not to they followed me around the store and even waited while i tried out the demo unit of the dreamcast. never once did they ask me if i needed help or anything but not to sound racist or anything but the whole staff was white and while they were spying on me there where some white kids in the store making a mess and causing scenes. i guessed this happened since it was a white neighborhood but since then i have hated eb and from working at gamestop we hear horro stories from eb and some of our other stores.

[controlcommerce]

Yeah Rodimus, the N-Gage uesless in gamer's eyes. But I have to admint I've considered the new N-Gage QD. Well I did, until I got the true facts. First off, I heard it was going to be $100. All though it did have some improvements like clearer screen, easy access gaming (which should of been a priority in the first model) and smaller unit, it's coming out with a $200 tag. Like you pointed out with the first N-Gage, I reither buy a GB SP and a $100 cell phone. Not to mention the creap games they have. Not only are they total shit, they cost more then the avgerage GB game at $35. But I'm still optimistic! After this fails they might lower the price again. Games like Pocket Kingdom look promising. You never know, they might do like the xbox and put so much money into it they'll make it good.

BTW, KOFs and generally all 2D fighters rock.

[b3b0p]

Back in the day I found a brand new and sealed FF Anthology at the Funcoland (now gamestop). They were available no place else, so I had to get it. I bring it up the counter. The clerk charges me. I paid. He then says hold on. Then he cracked the seal off of my new FF Anthology. Carefully took off the Sticker seal as to not rip it. Pulled out a cd case in the droor below the register. Flipped through it. Found Anthology. Pulled them out and put them in my Anthology case. All while my gaw had just cracked after hitting the floor just a little too hard. And he charged me full price after I had complained about paying full price for an opened copy, but I did because I could not get it anyplace else.

Have not been there since. Have not ordered anything on there website either.

Chris

[Rodimus]

Back in the day I found a brand new and sealed FF Anthology at the Funcoland (now gamestop). They were available no place else, so I had to get it. I bring it up the counter. The clerk charges me. I paid. He then says hold on. Then he cracked the seal off of my new FF Anthology. Carefully took off the Sticker seal as to not rip it. Pulled out a cd case in the droor below the register. Flipped through it. Found Anthology. Pulled them out and put them in my Anthology case. All while my gaw had just cracked after hitting the floor just a little too hard. And he charged me full price after I had complained about paying full price for an opened copy, but I did because I could not get it anyplace else.

Have not been there since. Have not ordered anything on there website either.

ChrisIt's not good when a company tricks you into thinking it's a unopened game. But most companies have to take one box and "gut" it. Then they sell the "gutted"one when it's the very last copy. I hate it when it happens to me, but the actual CD should always be in perfect condition. Still if it's opened, they shouldn't try to trick the customer in thinking it's unopened.

[PsyClerk]

I have never understood why people get upset over the 'open game' thing. It's done to prevent stealing. And you're going to open the damn thing anyways, so who cares? The game goes from the case into a plastic bag, often into another jewel case or even part of the original jewel case, so it will still be scratch-free.

I could understand if you somehow happened upon a sealed copy of Suikoden II or Intelligent Qube. You might not open those due to value. But why get pissy over the employee opening your copy of Resident Evil: Outbreak or whatever flavor of the month is out?

Not meant as a flame, truly. I just cannot fathom why it's important.

[Rodimus]

I have never understood why people get upset over the 'open game' thing. It's done to prevent stealing. And you're going to open the damn thing anyways, so who cares? The game goes from the case into a plastic bag, often into another jewel case or even part of the original jewel case, so it will still be scratch-free.

I could understand if you somehow happened upon a sealed copy of Suikoden II or Intelligent Qube. You might not open those due to value. But why get pissy over the employee opening your copy of Resident Evil: Outbreak or whatever flavor of the month is out?

Not meant as a flame, truly. I just cannot fathom why it's important.Knowing how the EB and Gamestop work, they will allow employees to "borrow" games sometimes, even brand new ones. Not all do this, but trust me, most do. I've bought brand new games from them before with some minor scracthes. So it's not really new, and it's pretty much preowned.

[nelsed]

I really don't like it when people open my games... it's happened, but I have never left the store with them. If they open them.. it's their game. And sometimes I don't open the game... sometimes I am still playing other games etc... and will either sell or return the game depending on the price I paid and if there has been a cheaper deal somewhere else in the mean time.

The most upsetting thing to me was when EB had Robotech Collector's Edition for Xbox for 9.99.... I asked the guy if they had any in stock... he looked below the counter and found one... and only one... and he started ranting about what a good buy it was (at 70 bucks) and how he had gotten one when it first came out etc... then he scanned it and his jaw dropped!! He started to hem and haw... and didn't want to tell me the price... so I just said.. it's 10 bucks isn't it... and he looked at me in total disbelief... How did you know that?!?! I read it on the internet... well technically I can't sell you this because our computer says we don't have any in stock... blah blah blah... I was getting really pissed at this point.. and his manager came out. So I said louder... well you have one in your hands right now... and that's the one I want to buy (so his manager could hear me)... he finally rang it up and let me have it... but he was livid... you could tell... He really wanted to buy one for 9.99 instead of the 70 bucks he had paid for it!!! what a loser... I think these EB employees go through some kind of jerk training before they get hired... so they can learn how to maximally annoy people and lose more business or something. It pisses me off when I hear them talk kids into deals they shouldn't be doing... trade in your 3 mint xbox games (new ones) for enough credit for this crappy previously owned game that's all scratched up, with no manual or case.. it would be great. And the poor kids do it cause they don't know how to deal with the pressure. EB.. candy from a baby etc... they piss me off....

Anyway........

[eldad9]

I've bought brand new games from them before with some minor scracthes. So it's not really new, and it's pretty much preowned.

It's not preOWNED, since the employees never owned it. But it's preplayed.

That's nothing. Once I was browsing the used PSX titles at an EB and found a Suikoden 2. The employee wanted it for himself, so he pulled a shotgun from behind the counter, shot me and killed me.

[Rodimus]

I've bought brand new games from them before with some minor scracthes. So it's not really new, and it's pretty much preowned.

It's not preOWNED, since the employees never owned it. But it's preplayed..

Key word "pretty much."

[schultzed]

I don't have a specific story . . . more of a philosophic view of why these stores suck sooooo bad.

I was a gamer back in the Atari, Mattel, Coleco era . . . after the crash I didn't play much. I started college, partied, discovered women . . . I only restarted gaming during the SNES period.

Being a cheapass . . . I went into used gamestores in New York City (lived there for 3 years in the early 90s). The little stores there at the time were really cool. They were run by Chinese guys who knew all the games but never gave you an attitude. The economics of it were great new games were about $50 but used copies were $35 (ONLY if they had box and instructions) and if you brought that same game back to the store a few weeks later you would get $20 in trade.

When we (my wife and I) moved back to the Midwest the only stores available were Funco, EB and Software Etc. . . . At the time, they didn't care whether games had books or boxes . . . they were all priced the same--needless to say, I didn't buy those games. This idiotic policy actually conditioned people not to care about their games.

I think that their economics are really messed up . . . you pay $50 for a new game, they give you $20 in credit, but charge $45 for the game used. So, very few people trade in games and the selection sucks overall. They make a lot of money on a few games--but piss off gamers. If they followed the example above from the small shops they could make a lot of money on a huge volume of games and MAKE PEOPLE HAPPY!

I tend to think that the workers are such dicks largely because they are paid so little . . . imagine being in a store filled with games and not being able to afford them . . .

[guessed]

...Once I was browsing the used PSX titles at an EB and found a Suikoden 2. The employee wanted it for himself, so he pulled a shotgun from behind the counter, shot me and killed me.

I hate it when that happens

[rsigley]

when they try to sell me stuff i just lie so they'll stop talking but sometimes it backfires. examples;

1) some guys trying to sell me a PS2 HD and i'm like yea i don't know anything about that and we talk a lil and he keeps telling me random things and i don't pay attention. then all of a sudden he's like if you don't buy it you won't be able to play any ps2 games ever again because they'll be installed to the HD like computers and that's the only way you can play them. so i was like damn that sucks guess i'm gonna just sell my ps2 then and since i won't have a ps2 guess i don't need to buy these games, and put the games i had back on the shelf and left. he was kinda like :O

2) some guy's telling me about the n gage and all the crazy stuff you can do with it, so i'm like well i don't have a cell phone and don't plan on getting one so it's not for me. so he starts to check me out and while he's checking me out my cell phone rings so i answer it and he looked pissed but oh well.

[Luffyaniki]

ok here my most disapointing gamestop experience,s

i walked into gamestop i unexpectedly found a gamecube controller
the kind with a fan in itwhich is also rare to find at a gamestop now this was really cool because my hands sweat up really bad when i play so i went to buy it at first i just thought the store was crowded but what it really was was an OUTRAGEOUS LINE!!!!!!!!!the line was going from the front to the back of the store well no big deal i thought the line go quickly i thought NO SUCH LUCK
not only were was the line long but the gamestop people wound not SHUT UP the gamestop employees were giving each and every one of the customers their life story and it didnt help that my ride was leaving in ten minutes
eventually but reluctantly i left very pissed for the unendingless mindless
whats your favorite color,that gamestation is good,i hate nintendo
and much more


too much one-sided conversation minus 3 points for gamestop

[magiic]

When EB Games cancelled my Wii pre-order and was lied to by two of there employees. Game over. I dont shop at EB Games AT ALL anymore. Won't even set foot inside one.

[Chuplayer]

They have a nasty habit of "not getting" preorder bonuses. I was really pissed that I didn't get that Fatal Fury hat with my preorder of King of Fighters Maximum Impact. At least I got the Metal Gear Saga DVD with MGS3 Subsistence. There would've been hell to pay if I didn't get that.

My absolute worst experience was when I bought a used Virtua Fighter 3tb for the DC. The guy behind the counter decided to "clean" the disc by rubbing it on his shirt. I just gave him the blankest stare, but I didn't say anything because I really wanted the game and just hoped it would work. It didn't. I got my money back no problem, though.

At least I haven't had any of the really bad experiences like some of you guys have had. I even managed to get the limited edition version of MGS3 Subsistence.

[johnmirra]

I always run into the problem of calling them to ask if they have a game, they say yes, and when i get there to buy it they claim they either never heard of the game or they "just sold the last one" just recently i called about the thing for ps2 and they said they had new and used copies, i got to the store and big surprise they had no recolection of the call and no game.

[johnmirra]

oh yeah also i overheard one worker telling some random trailerpark mom that she can buy and return any new game within 7 days and bring it back and they still sell it as new even she was shocked that they can do that

[Nirvanaguy777]

when they try to sell me stuff i just lie so they'll stop talking but sometimes it backfires. examples;

2) some guy's telling me about the n gage and all the crazy stuff you can do with it, so i'm like well i don't have a cell phone and don't plan on getting one so it's not for me. so he starts to check me out and while he's checking me out my cell phone rings so i answer it and he looked pissed but oh well.

Ballsy, much respect.

[Nirvanaguy777]

Reading through this thread I am reminded of the ebgames in my local Kings Plaza mall. There is one clerk in particular who thinks he is very slick and always tacks on that...what is it 3 or 5 dollar protection fee to whatever game I purchase just incase you need it. I always purchase my games, look at the recipt and end up returning it to have that charge removed, it is truely a pointless extra fee.

[Apossum]

When I first got a fat model PS2, I decided to buy it used at EB. Long story short, I had to return a ton of them. like 6 or 7, in a row, over the course of 2 days. All had DRE and wouldn't read blue discs. Finally I got one that worked and purchased a warranty on it. I had a stack of receipts for all the returns, so if this one broke, I could show them the crap I've been through with their store.

I moved to Arizona a few months later and sure enough it broke. I brought it to an EB games there and showed them what was up--the guy couldn't believe it. He called that store and found out the manager who had sold me all those was fired. The new manager recommended for the guy to give me a new, sealed system, which he did.

so it was a pain in the ass, but they resolved it well a few months later :)

[Jedi1979]

ok...i have 2 stories involving 2 seperate stores(1 eb and 1 GS) but the same employee (go figure) sorry if they seem long:)

story 1

I starting racking up trade-in credit at my local Gamestop. Each time that I went to use the credit I noticed that somehow they kept charging me tax (meanwhile at all the other stores I would never get charged tax, the system would take care of it). After several times of this occurring I called district to get an explanation. They stated that if you use trade-in credit you should not be charge sales tax in NY. They then called the store to confirm that this was true and that I should get back any tax charged in the past. The assistant manager then refunded any tax charged. The next time I went in there the same Assistant Manager charged me tax on my purchase when I used trade-in credit, after trying to explain this again, he began asking if I was tax exempt. He didn't seem to understand that since I was using trade-in credit that I shouldn't be charged tax again.

I had to call district again to confirm this and speak with this guy to get it into his head that he was wrong in charging me sales tax when using trade-in credit. Even the Head Manager tried to explain this to him and he still was insisiting that I had to pay tax. Unbelievable to have not only the Head Manager, but district call and tell him this and he still believed he was right. Now for the second story (with the same Assistant Manager at my local EB Games store!)

Story 2

I had received an email for Gamestop/EB Games with a coupon for a percentage off my purchase. Upon reading it it said nothing to the effect of not being combined with the EB Edge card. So thinking that I could combine the discount given through the EB Edge card and the coupon I went to my local EB Games store to purchase two used games. When checking out (with the Assistant Manager from my previous story) he made a point of reading the fine print out loud and stating that i could not combine the more card with the offer. I stated that it didn't say anything on the coupon saying it couldn't be combined. He then began going into a whole thing of how I am a scammer trying to get over on EB Games and how he knew as soon as I walked in that there was going to be a problem and kept repeating how much of a scammer I am because I'm trying to get the best deal on used games.

During his rant it came out that he remembered me from months ago with the tax issue. I don't even go to these stores that often, maybe about 10 times within 4-5 months time, and he still remembers what a supposedly big problem I was! He was comparing me to someone who goes on disability and scams to get money out of the state. At that point he was being ridiculous in front of a ton of people in the store, so I came out and called him and idiot. He then decided to kick me out the store after calling me a scammer a few more times. I told him one way or another I would end up with purchasing those games and proving he was wrong.

So I went back to the other Gamestop store to speak with the Head Manager as to clarify the fine print. He looked at his email and it specifically stated that this coupon could be combined with the card. He then called the EB Games store and spoke with the idiot and told him to check his email that it stated it right there saying they could be combined. So I went back and purchased my games just to make a point. Now this makes him 0 for 2! Unbelievable!!!!

[smalien1]

I once spent 45 minutes in line while almost every customer had some sort problem, stupid returns (not understanding the policy), asking dumb questions, it was ridicoulous.

[Pi573]

Bought Skies of Arcadia for DC from Gamestop in 2001. It's one of their cases, but that was seriously the best I could do at the time (NO other place had the game for a span of two months before or after) I get home and find that the second disc is being held into the crappy case by two of their price stickers and, even after peeling them off as carefully as possible, there's still residue on the disc. Second disc proceeds to play crappily, skipping and causing crashes in several places. I slog through anyway and manage to beat the game, no major problems (as long as I saved every ten seconds)

Fast forward to trade-in time a year later. The guy processing the trades (the same guy who sold me the game originally) looks at the second disc and goes "Man, this is a mess...what'd you do to this game? I'm gonna have to dock credit on this one"

So yeah, excuse me if I'm a bit reluctant to trade games to them. I still don't know what I could have done differently since the stickers were affixed to the freakin disc. I imagine chemicals are out in that situation.

[Shimrra]

I personally have had several, but one pisses me off the most.

I was suffling through the PS1 games at a local EB and found a Dragon Ball GT. It didn't have instructions or a back insert, it was just the game. But as many of you know, it's very rare and in damand, or at least at the time it was. And it was only $19.99. So I decided to invest in it then I'd plan to put it on eBay and make a quick buck. I brought it to the counter, and the EB employees at the counter recognized this game and started saying, "This game is awsome," and,"Wow Dragon Ball games are the best fighting games." I stood silently trying not to roll my eyes, and purchased my game, and left swiftly to get away from the two goobers.

Walking out to my car I decided to check the back of the CD for scratchs. So I rip through all the damn tape they wrap around it. (You know the "Bring it Back within 14 days if seal isn't broken" crap. Open it and to my surprise it was the worthless Japanesse version. So I bring it back to the two goobers and they ask me how I know it's the Japanesse version. I told them, "I used to work at a game store and we delt alot in these crappy Dragon Ball games," Then I ponted to some tiny text on the CD that said "For use in Japanese PSX only." In conclusion I got my money back, but it was a major let down cause I could've made a quick $70.

Sads bad but I really wouldnt have gotten pissed about it. Simple mistake and happens every now and then. If lets say they refused to refund you the money then I would be fuming mad.

But here is my bad experience and see if everyone else feels the same.

I got my Sony psp and also fell for that line about investing on the warranty they offer, which I asked again and again that if any problems I am covered. I get home excite to start playing about 2 days later I notice a dead pixel on the screen. Just one tiny pixel glowing red no matter what I play. May not be a problem for some people but after dropping close to 200 and change on everything I decided to go back and ask for a new one since I would assume it falls under this problem as being defective. I get to the store and the guy on hand tells me that cant exchange my unit that I need to contact sony and send my unit back for a new one. I asked then why did you guys sell me on the warranty if you dont cover everything. They started in like "Oh that not me thats the company policy theres nothing I can do about it" I was like man you guys are liers. Whats messed up part about it was there was a cop in the store at the same time looking for games when he heard yelling and arguing with the store people he walked on by and butted in.
What made it worse is that the clerks all were like "oh dead pixels happens to everyone" "if its just one on the screen you can still play it" The cop even said " yeah my psp has a couple dead pixels but I still play it"
This is BS man im arguing i told the store clerk you guys sold me on the warranty telling me that everything is covered. I asked the guy show me on the warranty paper where it says that you do not cover dead pixels on the screen or even something close to that fact. He couldnt. he just kept saying "its not me its the company they make the rules not me"
Just pissed me off more was when they were trying to convice me that its ok if there are dead pixels on the screen. Im like do you think I am retarded? I asked the guy point blank are you a gamer? do you play games? do you buy games? hes like yeah i do. So i said well if you were in my shoes and you went out and dropped this large amount on money only to find out that there is a defect with it and then you tell me that you can not return not for a refund but for an exchange for the same product you wouldnt get pissed and on top of that you dropped the extra for your so call warranty coverage. I asked him "how would you feel? would you accept the answer you are giving me right now?" he didnt say not one thing even the cop and the other employees just where standing there lookin stupid. they knew I was right. I turn to the cop and told him that if he went to any store and bought a tv and it had a dead pixel would he live with it or return it and get it replaced?
They just stood there stupid looks on there faces. In the end all the guy could offer me is refund me my money I spend on the warranty but there was nothing they could do about the system.
I was fuming mad that day.
But you know what they same Karma is a bi* couple months later they closed that EB store. I am so glad cause they had nothing but dumb monkeys working there. One of the worst EBs in queens, ny.

Well sorry for it being so long but thats my worse experience in EB.

Oh and remember people if you get the warranty ask questions before you invest in it. On a happy note there is now a Gamestop block away from it with more knowledgable crew that know what they are doing. I bought a DS lite month later the right shoulder button didnt work so took it back had dropped the money on the warranty and they took it back no problem.

[norkusa]

Not really a specific experience, but a series of them. I kept getting their damn "display copies" whenever I bought anything new from EB/GS. After the first couple I received, I was like "okay this is a weird coincidence". But after the 5th time in a row after receiving a fucking unsealed game that I had to pay new price for, I stopped shopping there.

Now I just go a mile down the street to Best Buy or one of the million other stores in the area that sell games. Why give EB/GS my business if they keep pulling this shit?

[tangytangerine]

Ever had employee tell you a game you're trading in is 2 discs instead of 1, even when the packaging or game disc doesn't say anything about 2 discs?

Had this happen back 2 years ago. Picked up G-Police 2: Weapons of Justice for PS1 up on EB's site back when they had them and could get 25% off w/ free shipping. Eventually cleared out some games that year, including that game since I didn't like it. I go to Gamestop to trade them in, everything goes fine up until they get to that one. They tell me they can't take it since it's only 1 disc of a 2 disc game. Now I know they wrong, cause I finished the game and there was no "please insert disc 2" message when playing.

I tell them that and that the packaging or disc doesn't say anything about 2 discs. Which they then tell me that the computer says it's a 2 disc game. Now I know exactly what they did, they just typed in G-Police and the first game came up, which is a 2 disc game. But apparently, the second game wouldn't scan and they couldn't find it in their system. So they couldn't take it, then give me the credit for the rest of the stuff. Which I used on some used PS2 game(honestly don't remember what it was), take it up there and give them my discount. The employee then procedes to try to sell me another 10 months for the discount card, which I would be fine with, if I wouldn't have had another 6 months on that card. Which I tried to explain why should I buy another 10 months, when I haven't used up the remaining months? Only to get a dumb look on the employees face. After that, she just rings it up, puts the game in a bag and hands it to me.

So anyway, since I know Gamestop wouldn't take the game, since their computers suck. I took it to EB and they had no problem scanning it and giving me credit for it. That was the last time I went to that Gamestop to. For those wondering, it was the one in Kettering, Ohio on Wilmington Pike and I found out later that it was the store manager running the register that day(apparently that store had a very high quitting rate cause of that manager).

That wasn't my worst experience, but it was the one that pissed me off the most.

[wubb]

Let's see... I got a game from the .com a while back that was cracked (disc game) another time got a GB game with a non-functional save and another time ordered a 1st party DC controller and got a 3rd party controller. Returned to the nearest B&M store for a full refund in all cases.

Really haven't had all that many bad experiences. However I rarely shop there for new games as you can pretty much count on them having the highest price unless there is a clearance or rare sale going on, and now that they don't guarantee case and manual for .com orders I stopped buying used online from them. So I guess they really don't have a ton of opportunities to piss me off either.

[badgersprite]

I've never really had a bad experience shopping at all. I got ditched by an employee when I was buying my Xbox 360 though, and the store was practically empty, and they didn't give me exactly what I had asked for to begin with, but I wasn't upset by it and I wound up getting a better deal anyway, and the sale wound up going to a different employee. :D

[Shadows916]

My worst was going into an EB at the mall nearby to trade in a lot of stuff and get a PS3. I went in, and asked if they had any in stock. The person said yes, so I told him I wanted one, and had some stuff to trade in as well. He rudely told me he had an hour before closing, and 3 hours worth of work to do, so he was not gonna take my trade ins. He also went on to tell me that the only games out for the PS3 at the time were crap, and the system itself was garbage. I asked him, "Don't you want to sell a PS3?". he replied he'd love to- so I told him to stfu and take my stuff, and I'll buy one. He said no, so I went to the software ect on the other side of the mall, got the district manager's number and called to complain, and went to a gamestop by my house and got one the next morning. took them maybe 30 minutes to put everything i was trading into the system, get me my 60gig ps3, and pay the rest and go home. Was very pissed off that night.

[YoshiFan1]

I pre-ordered a PS2 in June 2000 and they said I was guarnteed a launch system.

Due to shortages, that changed and they said I would get a system in the 2nd shipment. I called every week for 2 1/2 months and they kept telling me they didn't get up to my name yet and I would get a system on the "next" shipment.

It was January at this point and I call again and am told they called me a few weeks ago and I never came up to pick the system (remeber, I was calling every week) so they gave the system to someone else. I was furious because we gave them 2 phone numbers and knew it must be a lie because every week including past the time when they said they called, they kept saying they weren't up to my name yet.

Corporate was called and the next day the same EB calls and says they have my system waiting for me. I would have bought a game with it but due to them not getting the system until mid January, I had a chance to pick up some games for $27 - $36 from EToys.com going out of business sale so I didn't buy a games from EB which the manager wasn't too happy about but I wasn't going to spend another $50 there (though I did buy a memory card).

Since then I decided I would never shop at EB again unless it benefitted me to do so (like $2.99 clearance games, or trading in games for more than I paid for them). I have not made a full price or close to a full price purchase since then at EB.

Edit - I didn't realize the thread was sold old and just saw I posted this same story on page 2 almost 2 years ago

[addicted2games]

Well, one day I go to some EB's that are in the city 40 miles from mine. I do this occasionally as the used stock is different at every store obviously. Well they were doing a B2G1 free sale at the time and I found a few games I wanted while my girlfriend found about 21 DVD movies. So we go up to the counter and I use my Edge card in addition to the sale. Well, we get in the car and drive about 5 mintues before my girlfriend opens up her movies and notices a good HALF of them dont have the discs in them! Now if I would have driven home 40 miles before noticing this, I would have been furious. We saw the employee get the discs but since she had 20+ movies and I had my games we didnt notice him not putting half the movie discs in their case. Obviously we went back and got them. The employee didnt seem too concerned that he forgot the discs, but whatever.

On another note, I bought a used game at the same store at another time and when I got home, the disc was a later sequel to the game I had purchased. Again this store is 40 miles away, so I call the store and they send the right disc to my local store, but this took them over 2 WEEKS to do! WTF!

This was a about a year ago, so now I check each and every disc of movies or games I buy at EB/GS with no exceptions. Not just for condition, but also for "correctness". Saves me a lot of headache now as I have turned down quite a few games that the discs looked like they were used as frisbees. Lesson learned.

*edit* Almost forgot, I did have one great experience at this exact store. This was a couple weeks after the limited edition Metal Gear Subsistence game came out. I was browsing the store and I saw one of these sitting in the case behind the counter. I asked if I could buy it and the employee said sure. I was in shock because these were going on ebay at the time for $150+ and NO store had any of these because they were sold out through preorders. I dont really know why it was there, but I am so lucky to get it for retail price in mint sealed condition. Yeah!

[Jedi1979]

oh shit...i didnt even realize how old this thread was either:lol: damn newbies bumping old threads

[Scorch]

It's not preOWNED, since the employees never owned it. But it's preplayed.

That's nothing. Once I was browsing the used PSX titles at an EB and found a Suikoden 2. The employee wanted it for himself, so he pulled a shotgun from behind the counter, shot me and killed me.

RIP

[360CoreGaMer]

They do check the systems before buying them around here, but what urks me is that they don't check the games that they sell.

[The 7th Number]

Here is my only bad experience...well that i can remember.

I go to EB Games looking for the classic Smackdown 2 game for PSX. I go up to the guy and ask if they have Smackdown 2 for psx. He tells me they dont go by numbers. Smackdown 2 cover art (http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/2594/190pxwwfsmackdown2knowypl3.jpg)So then he tells me they probably dont have it. I go to the used PSX games and within 3 minutes i find it. So i bought it and took it home. Poped in the game, just kept loading forever. So i took it back and told them it didnt work. I wanted to exchange it. So now within a day they went from not having it, to being able to replace my game that didnt work. Well i got home and finally saw that they gave me smackdown 1, the wrong game. So i went back and got my money back and never went to that store again.

[goatindaruffness]

It was a few years back and I was at my local Gamestop after shopping at Circuit City for a DVD and a gamecube-gba connection cable. So I'm browsing the game selection and decide to ask for help and I'm being completely ignored. So I ask again for help and the workers turn their back on me. Then I say, what's the problem why is nobody helping me??? So I go to leave and say FUCK THIS PLACE!!!
One of the workers decides to chime in... "Next time don't shop at Circuit City and then maybe we'll help you."
So I go back in and I say yeah, yeah is that right, don't shop at Circuit City, WHY?!?!? Are you some kind of small market chain that loses money because of big business peering in on your territory, NO, you're as much as a corporation as they are, so what the hell is the difference...
Then I pulled out what I had in my bag showed them the DVD said, DO YOU EVEN CARRY THIS, NO YOU DON'T, and this cable, how much do you charge 24.99, I got it for 17.99 on sale, do you even HAVE sales in your store, NO, rarely if ever...
I try to avoid Gamestop whenever possible, especially since their workers are condescending assholes who think they're better than you for whatever reason, and I understand its policy to hype pre-sales, but do you really have to be a douche and laugh at the people who don't want to pre-order an item and mock them saying how they'll never get it...
I like to buy games on release day at another establishment and ask them if they have it and when they laugh and say you won't get that for weeks unless you pre-ordered and pull it out on them, like fuck you and your pre-orders...

Another story a friend of mine wanted to sell some GBA games and they said they wouldn't accept any games that didn't have box and instructions, so he asked why they wouldn't buy cartridge only games, but they gladly will sell anyone a cartridge or disc only game??
And the guy gave some bullshit remark so he kind of gave the worker an attitude back and then we left and he also said FUCK THIS PLACE!!!
Some fuckin' gorilla-esque goon of a human comes out of the back, like a caged animal and gets right in my friends face and tells him... "YOU'RE GONNA FUCK MY FRIEND UP HUH? HOW ABOUT I FUCK YOU UP!?!?!"
So my friend's like, no I said FUCK THIS PLACE, not anything about fuckin' anyone up, you goon...
So the guy was like about to punch my friend in the face but I flagged down a mall security guard by then and I'm sure he saw the guy coming over so he stopped and just said, "DON'T EVER COME BACK TO MY STORE!!!"
My hatred for gamestop employees for the most part is strong as you'd imagine haha...
-Goatman

[62t]

I hate how the tape the used price sticker on the INSERT instead of outside of the case. A pain to get it out.

[MrMaddness]

I hate how the tape the used price sticker on the INSERT instead of outside of the case. A pain to get it out.

They should only do that on the side, it's to prevent it from peeling, which it will do. I know it is annoying to get it off, but it's something we have to deal with.

[machoman_93]

remember when they had the donkey kong jungle beat with 2 bongos for $10?
Well the guy tried to sell me one with out the game, only 1 bongo, and for $20. Long story short, I got him fired.

[PenguinoMF]

A couple months ago during a B2G1 sale I got 3 cheap games. The total was about $9. I used my gift card that had $63.xx on it from a trade in a few weeks prior. The guy swaps the card and says that will be $6.xx. I knew that was wrong because I knew how much the card had and didn't use it yet. He said it only had $3.xx on it. I told him that was impossible and he let me call the number on the card to get the balance. I called and it said $63.xx. I tell the guy and tries again. Again it comes up wrong. He calls and gets the same thing. I ended up spending like 15 minutes trying to get it figure out. I don't know why I waited around so long. I hate mall EBs.

[darthbudge]

Ok I realize that this sounds uneliveable but this is really a true story.

I went to gamestop just to look around and I saw that they had Burnout 3 for the Xbox for 9.99 and I also had a 10% off coupon and it was going to expire the next day. So I'm like "Cool I'll get this." and so I head over to counter and hand them the case and some other games and so they ring it up and then they put the green xbox case down and pull out this old Blockbuster case with the burnout insert in it and then put the game in it.
So immeditly I am like, "Why do I get a crappy blockbuster case when there is an actual xbox case sitting right there." And they respond about that that is a display case or something. I felt like argueing but I really wanted game so I just let it go.
I brought the games and left and so as we were driving home I was looking at one of my other games and my little bro was looking at burnout when I suddenly started smelling something nasty. I look around and ask my bro if he smells it and after he does. Well we couldn't tell where it was coming from until my bro put the manual for burnout down and THERE WAS FECES ON THE MANUAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am serious about this, so we immeditly turned around and when back to the store furious about what happened and started argueing with guy about it and so he finally gave us a new manual and case for us. I really wanted to demand the game for free but I gave up on it cause me and my bro really wanted it.

Nevertheless I never saw that worker in GS again.

[kittycatgirl2k]

Im always getting the display copy too. I refuse to accept that with a disc game, but for Nintendo DS games I dont care as much since its hard to really screw up a cartridge. But after the third or fourth time it happened to me, I vowed to never just take a store copy again. However, I was so happy to get a copy of Phoenix Wright last time that I just accepted it without much of an argument.

Worst experience was for the Wii preorders. When I got to the store they told me there would be just enough for me to get one but anyone afterwards would be out of luck. So I was the rear of the line. After waiting 30min or more there were two people in front of me left and one of the guys taking preorders let some douche reserve two. I overheard this and said something to the effect of "What about me? I was promised a system, do I still get one?" They said "no" and I went on a little tirade about how it was bullshiat, etc and stormed out. Havent been back to that EB (now ghetto Gamestop...the one down the street is MUCH nicer) since.

[kittycatgirl2k]

THERE WAS FECES ON THE MANUAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am serious about this

I can believe it. A guy I used to work with would bring his games into work and take the manuals into the bathroom for reading material on the throne. I could see how feces could get on that. Gross but true.

[addicted2games]

Obviously with this being such an old thread and CAG's still having instances to complain about EB/GS goes to show that those stores never changed. They still suck ass except for the occassional B2G1 free sales. Too bad the stupid corporation keeps buying other chains and gets bigger as time goes on.

[ITDEFX]

Back in Feb of 2002 I found a brand new copy of Skies of Arcadia for the DC (new tag) and I asked the clerk for the game. He then turns around pulls the game out of it's sleeve in the back drawer and inserts the game into the case and sells it to me. I asked him what's the return policy and he was like 30 days if defective once it's open and I said "But it's already opened", then he grabs the game out of my hands and puts one of those eb 30 day stickers on the opening and hands it back to me in a pissed way. That same eb (at the fair oaks mall) had some shitty people working there and every time I walked in to see what's new, one of them who was just standing around talking to his other co-workers was like "uh oh, it's the dreamcast guy.." I was like WTF!??! So what if I was trying to buy up some of the last few games for a great system that SEGA gave up on.

I tried to stay out of GB/EB unless there is a good price drop (19.99 or less). There is this one guy, Tom over at the Fox Mill, VA Gamestop that's cool and doesn't shove shit down your throat when you first step into the place. Anyways when i browse around, I listen to his conversations with other people and he acts like he is the gaming god of the area. People come in just to talk to him about video games. I feel sorry for that guy sometimes as it seems his whole life revolves around GS.

[galvatron2k1]

I went into EB to look for some stuff a month or so ago and while I was there, I saw a sign on their ps3 kiosk for $5 off Virtua Fighrer 5 with a preorder. I go up to the counter and ask about the deal. The 2 clerks behind the counter don't have any idea what I am talking about and tell me they never heard of it.

I ask them again and explain that I can see the sign on the PS3 kiosk not 5 feet away. The lady comes around the counter and looks at the sign and says... "Oh!!! That is if you put down a preorder of $5, then when you pick it up, the game will be $5 off from the money you put down on it so you would owe $55 + tax when you pick it up." Huh??? It specifically said $5 off on the sign.

So then, I ask the lady what happens if I pay it in full now, where is my $5 off? She said, well, since you paid the $5 up front with the rest of your payment, that is where the $5 off comes in. Either way, it's going to be $60 + tax.

Of course I say F' it and a week later, buy it from Best Buy around the corner with $10 coupon.

[strayfoxx]

I've never had a serious issue with Gamestop/Ebgames. I make sure to get in good with the managers, but on certain occasions I have to venture off and go to other stores.

1st occasion- Take advantage of the Shenmue II 4.99 Xbox deal. Bring the disc up front they cannot find the disc and state they will call me when they find it. Call me two days later to say they have it in, I go down there the next day and they told me that since I didnt come in that night they might have sold it but they have to look. Look around for 40 minutes and finally find it.

2nd occasion- I am sold a "new" Halflife II on XBOX, which has no shrinkwrap and is a used disc. Someone buys me Halflife II for XBOX so I go to return it. I tell them it is a new disc and they tell me there is no shrink wrap on it and the disc looks dirty. I told them if they didnt sell used discs as new then there wouldnt be such a mishap. They give me a look of disbelief, but do honor the refund.

PS- I normally am a good writer, but for some reason detailing these experiences off the cuff makes me seem like a terrible writer.

[SinnerChrno]

I don't really shop too much at GS, the closest thing I have to an "experience" was when I came in to buy Mega Man Zero 4 near its release day and they tried giving me the display copy. "Oh, it's all here in this bag." Ummmm....fuck no. You opened it and put a goddamn sticker on the box. No thanks. (I am anti-used, for those who can't tell.)

So, I went to the other store in town and picked up a copy of MMZ4 since Best Buy was being gay at the time. To this day, I still wonder if the box was a little fishy, as it felt "damp" compared to my other GBA boxes. Hmm.....Yeah, that's about it. Sad huh?

Oh, and one more thing that has been recent. I finally got around to buying Naruto: Clash of Ninja 2, and the copies they had all had mis-aligned spines and the paper was peeping out through the plastic on the bottom of the case. It just goes to show why I visually rape every game I buy 99 out of 100 times, with this case being the one time I didn't. I still need to go back and return it, although now it's currently a question of whether I want the version with the retarded Red spot on the cover or not. -_-

OCD? You'd better believe it. Wait, this topic was about GS, o____o whoops.

Carry on.

[sp00ge]

My last experience with the local Gamestop was the breaking point.

I had a bunch of DVDs, GBA games and other stuff I snagged for cheap at junk shops. I took it in to GS to see how much credit I could get for all of it. The guy scans and then types something, over and over until he has everything in. He tells me $10 store credit. Forget it.

I go over to EB games down the road, where people are a lot nicer, and take in the same items. Items are all scanned and the total? $33!! Apparently, the guy at GS was either overriding prices or putting in lower value items in place of what I had.

So, the guy at GS tried to screw me out of 2/3 of the real trade value of my stuff. After that, I swore I would never step foot in that store, and I have so far managed.

[Warner1281]

Yeah, I don't have any real bad experiences at GS/EB, but I guess that's because I go in expecting most of the stuff that gets complained about. I know that new games are pregutted. I know used games are scratched to hell and sometimes can't be found. I know manuals aren't always included. I know being sold subs and GPG are a pain in the ass. But as someone who works in retail, I know better than to blame most of this on the employee. Just realize they are simply following their stupid orders and you'll get along fine.

I don't buy new games from them cause I don't like them pregutted. When buying used, I know to check the disc to make sure it's the right game, not too scratched, and is the right number of discs. I also make sure everything has manual and case. I turn down any upsells (unless I need one), and I'm good to go. Haven't had any problems and I shop there at least a couple times a month.

[anotherpoorgamer]

There was this one time several years back, I bought Soul Calibur for the DC and it was tagged in one of those gamestop slim cd cases for $20 new.

This was when Dreamcast was being phased out and shipped to other stores. I was yay, I finally found a new copy and then when after I paid the clerk hands me the game disc-only in that same case. I was: "it was supposed to be new!" The clerk responds: "Oh, that's a mistake on the tag!" :(

Dreamcast being harder to find and I wanted to have a copy so bad that I took the scratched "new" copy home. :(

The worst experience was going to a different Gamestop and waiting awhile for some soccer mom to buy one of the new Splinter Cell games, only to be passed off from being helped by some larger soccer mom who just walked in and was complaining about something. Needless to say I have given up buying new games there unless it is last resort and buying anything at Gamestop when there is only one employee working.

I guess I should have knocked over the magazine rack or in my case the GBA rack for waiting so long! :)

[kencag8283]

I purchased Super Mario Sunshine when the price dropped to 29.99. The lady hands me a copy and I leave. When I get into my car, I notice that the game is re-sealed. I open it and find a receipt behind the instruction manual. I go back and ask for another copy, seeing as how this copy was returned. Well, the lady who sold me the copy tried to convince me that it was "new." I show her the receipt. Then she reassures me that the game would work. After about five minutes, she finally gave me a new, factory sealed copy of the game. I stopped going to EB/GS because they constantly tried to sell me re-sealed games. I understand if it is the last copy they have of the game, but when there are ten new copies, why do they always try to hand me the copy that was clearly returned?

[Scorch]

Having worked there a few years back, I rarely have a bad experience, as I know all the guys there. I did shop at one where an older guy talked quite condecendingly to me. I knew Chibi Robo was $9.99. It was in their advertisement. I called a few friends at another store to confirm it, and yes, today was the last day of the sale. Took it to the counter and it had a $19.99 tag. She quoted me the $20 price. I pointed out that it was $10, and she disagreed. A balding man clearly in a mid-life-crisis came up and agreed that it was $20, I disagreed, said it was $10, and showed them the flyer. He then kept referring to me in condecending terms, such as "big guy" and "little buddy". I'm 22. I'm not a big guy and i'm definately not your little buddy, asshole.

Minute as it is, that's my complaint. My worse experience actually came when I worked there.. a guy apparently shit on himself, the hold-something-and-pray type of shit, diarrhea just running down the guy's leg apparently.. and he walked all over the mall, dropping little piece by little piece along the whole trail. Fucking disgusting.

[Dhuk]

Is there a worst eBay experience thread?

[kaze0]

Or worst Circuit City experience thread...

When the DS lite came out there was a promo at circuit city in the weekly flyer saying how you got a free case with purchase ($10 value). There was also a manufacturers coupon floating around for a free copy of brain age. I went there bought my Lite, picked up the case, and found the last copy of brain age. Nothing on the items says you can't combine, but I'm told by the manager that you can't combine the 2 free items.

That sounds pretty standard, so I didn't argue even though nothing explicitly prohibited it. I went back home with my DS and brain age. Shortly after I see on circuitycity.com, an entire page dedicated to the DS Lite and how you get both a free case and free copy of brain age (in store only). So I go back to the store with a printout. The manager refuses to give me the free case... Without even trying, she says the system will not let us do that, it's either one or the other.

I went outside called a corporate CSR and had them call the store, and the manager still flat out refused to honor their deal.

[D_Icon]

I often check on the GS price drops. One day I notice that some GBA Bomberman game price dropped from $5.99 to $3.99. So I go to the store and ask the guy to get me the game out the glass display case. The game had the $5.99 sticker on it, so I tell the guy that the price dropped recently. He checks it and it rings up to $3.99. He then asks me with some cocky attitude you wouldn't but it for $2 dollars more. I said no I wouldnt. He then tells his other co-worker some people are really cheap. I didnt care. I then asked the guy, you do check the games to see if they work right? He says no they get to many. I say what if someone opened the cart, and takes the chipwhat ever its called. HE says they wont. I then said so if i bought some games you wouldnt check them? He says I would check your. I am now planning on scamming that sob.

[SaraAB]

Copying from another topic because its really long:

At Gamestop I was just recently sold a "supposedly new" gba game that was MISSING both the registration code and the cardboard paper insert that holds the game. It was a copy of Nintendo's Dr. Mario/Puzzle league so I knew it was supposed to have these things with it. I did not realize that the game was like this until I got home, a complaint using the reciept code was filed on tellgamestop.com and the game was returned yesterday, thankfully I did not have any trouble with the return or I may have exploded.

This is not the sole reason for this though, I was also sold an intentionally broken used game in the same transaction. It was a used copy of pinball of the dead for gba, a game I have been hunting for for some time. I plotted the location of the game using the gamestop store locator, and even went out of my way about 45-60 min to a gamestop that was not in my area to buy it. This was of course only after confirming they had the game in stock by calling them, as the store locator has problems. When I get there I purchase my stuff, they throw it in a bag and send me on my way. The store was EXTREMELY crowded to the point where you cannot even move or breathe in it, so I just took the bag and got out of there. When I get home I find the mario game with pieces missing, and I find a used copy of pinball of the dead that looked like it had been shot through with a BB gun, of course the game did not work, so it was returned as well.

However I do not APPRECIATE gamestop, a company that flaunts themselves as the largest video game retailer in the usa, intentionally selling me broken merchandise. A used game store should at least make an attempt to test each game that comes in, and if a game is in deplorable condition, they SHOULD NOT ACCEPT IT as a trade in. I know they intentionally sell customers broken games as routine too because every time I see a game get traded in, it gets a price tag stuck on it and gets plunked right onto the shelf so it can be sold immediately. It has even been stated in gamestop's trade guide that they take games that do not work. Obviously they are taking these games that do not work and putting them right on the shelf for customers to unknowingly purchase in broken condition.

They do the same with used systems too, cept I think they test those, well they test them to see if they are working anyways, condition obviously does not matter. The employees could be much more useful if they tested and cleaned the games instead of standing around and playing games all the time. Yes I understand that its a very boring job, and I wouldn't care if they stood around and played games after the work was done, but they should at least use the time to do something constructive such as to test and clean used games so they actually work when you purchase one.

The "refurbishing" fee they charge is also a load of bull, they take those games and just shove them on the shelf right after they are traded in just like they do with everything else without cleaning or testing them. So getting a game with feces on it or... something else on it, wouldn't exactly be unheard of. I have even heard that people intentionally do things like this to their games before trading them in.

I could say loads and loads of terrible things about gamestop, another one is that when you preorder something, not only do they give you an automated phone call to tell you its in, even though it may not really be in but I hear they call you once again a couple weeks later asking you if you want to trade in that game that you just bought!!!!!!!! This in turn waste's a lot of people's cell phone minutes if you have a cell phone number registered with them they will leave you lots of automated messages. I do not want to leave my home phone as I cannot have the phone ringing at 4am because of an automated gamestop message with my grandparents sleeping and people who have to go to work in the morning in my house.

As soon as ebgames got bought by gamestop the whole chain has just been a downhill spiral of questionable business practices and extremely poor customer service with poorer and poorer quality of merchandise being sold at overpriced prices most of the time.

I am like the previous poster, I like to check the prices of used games and buy when it gets cheap, and if its in reasonable condition for the price only. Real business is people who buy a 60$ game and trade it in a few weeks later for 15$ or less. Gamestop only cares about the customers that buy games, play them, and trade them in for way less than what they paid, because this is how they make the most money, from people who buy and trade back to them, hence the phone calls begging you to trade back your preordered games. I wish I could be gamestop-free but its so hard to be gamestop free when these stores are everywhere and they sell some games at cheaper prices than other stores.

[VAD3R or Fro]

My store isnt that bad at all. But I did have one problem where I traded in Gran Turismo 4 for 5 bucks and when I came back in their a week later the guy said nothing was on the card.

[Francis]

A few years ago my PS2 broke, it was the older FAT version. I had just gotten San Andreas and was dying to play it again, but of course it was near Christmas and Sony had decided to stop making the fat ps2 in favor of the slim one. Causing a huge shortage.

So I go to EBgames and they tell me they're sold out, and that it's almost impossible to get ahold of the PS2 right now etc etc. So they recommend I put 20 dollars down and reserve the system (129.99 I think it was back then or maybe it was still 149.99), so I do. A grueling month and a half later they call me telling me they have my system in, but they are forcing a bundle on me! I didn't 'reserve' the bundle pack, they told me the price when I put my 20 dollars down but now they are upping the price by 50 bucks and throwing in some crap I don't want.

I tried to fight it and explain the situation, but of course it is corporate policy or whatever, and that if I don't buy the bundle they will sell my reserved system to the next guy. So I buy it, and got a copy of Jak II (which I already had) 2 controller extensions, a FAT Ps2 vertical stand (keep in mind I was buying the new slim version) and a free subscription to EGM.

I didn't even get the sub to EGM, they left that out and also didn't give me credit for the 20 bucks I already put down a couple months earlier, so I had to go back and fix all that.

That's actually when I discovered CAG, so good things have come from the experience.

[georox]

Traded my PS2 in a good while back, over a year now. Well first thing I did is pull every PS2 and PS1 game I had to make sure they all ran and the PS2 worked, also tried 10 random DVD movies. So far, everything works, cool. Brought it in, brought the games in, traded it all in, got my credit. (Note, manager was on duty at register)

Go back in a few weeks later, (Now so you know, most of the employees are nicer and a chunk at the gamestop and EB both know me now.) so, I get told by one of the normal people who work there the manager told them to chew me out because the PS2 didn't work and he had to send it to Sony. Now, the best part is I had NUMEROUS witnesses hearing it, and they themselves would back me up if anything came up over it, so yea. Getting told that they where mean't to chew me out... Fun stuff eh? I get home, first thing I do is contact the district management, now let it be known the District Manager works in Indy, I live in Michigan. I've been to the store he works in when I goto GenCon every year, and I complained in person about him before. Now, when I call in he actually figured out the person I was talking about very fast, and it turns out he has had numerous complaints of varying things.

Long story short, if I walked by that store for the longest time, he would literally cower. I'm serious, this weird balding manager guy would cower in fear for some apparent reason. Best part though, he got fired sometime last Fall/Summer :) To that we had much partying, noone liked him, ever. Guy knew nothing.... He even tried to sell me Madden claiming it was GTA3 once. No joke.

[Skexis]

Just recently called two stores in my area before the free City of Heroes/Villains promo, and asked them if they had heard of the promotion or had any copies left.

Both places told me they didn't have any, and that they hadn't heard anything about the promotion.

What do I see the next day but a cardboard display for "buy a pc game and get city of heroes/villains free."

Of course both stores told me that they had already handed out their copies. You know, the nonexistent copies I had asked about.

[AshesofWake]

pretty much them trying to sell me open copies of games for a new price. happened a binch of times, i bitched and didn't buy them.

[vicious7171]

I called in to EB, and asked if they had a certain game in stock. The guy said yes, so I asked him to hold it for me. He says he can hold it for an hour, so I drive over there (not a long drive, 15 minutes). I get there, and he can't find it. So I tell him to call me when he finds it (I really wanted the damn game) and I go home. He calls me an hour or less after I get home, saying that he found it. I drove over to the store again, and this time he says,

"I'm really sorry, it turns out the only copy in our store is being held for someone's preorder..."

I was so pissed. There was another employee in addition to the first when I made my second trip, so my guess is that he came in to work and wanted it himself. I didn't go back to that EB ever again. They can fuck off.

[vicious7171]

My last experience with the local Gamestop was the breaking point.

I had a bunch of DVDs, GBA games and other stuff I snagged for cheap at junk shops. I took it in to GS to see how much credit I could get for all of it. The guy scans and then types something, over and over until he has everything in. He tells me $10 store credit. Forget it.

I go over to EB games down the road, where people are a lot nicer, and take in the same items. Items are all scanned and the total? $33!! Apparently, the guy at GS was either overriding prices or putting in lower value items in place of what I had.

So, the guy at GS tried to screw me out of 2/3 of the real trade value of my stuff. After that, I swore I would never step foot in that store, and I have so far managed.
To play devil's advocate here, I used to work at a store that carries used media, and the amount we payed for trade-ins depended heavily on our current stock. Maybe GS had more stuff in stock, possibly because they are generally meaner than the nearby EB. On the other hand, maybe the employee was just a dick.

[Chuplayer]

My biggest disappointment was not getting the Fatal Fury hat for preordering the King of Fighters Maximum Impact game. EB/Funco/Gamestop has always been rather good for me. I've had a handful of defective games, but I only wasted time and gas with those, not aggrivation or money. At least I got the Metal Gear Saga DVD with Subsistence last year.

[jer7583]

taking over an hour (I would have left, but I paid cash the first botched transaction) to return/rebuy an xbox game for the b2g1 promotion. Moron.

That was after I waited almost a half hour for some lady with her screaming kids in front of me to pay with a check that wouldn't go through.

This link is Dave Thomas Approved.
http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=935005

[necrojustice]

I actually had a TRU problem recently. I was looking for 360 HD cables, and I browsed before going straight to where they were. I finally made it to that section, and they had them with a clearance sticker for $10.48. They also had the S-Video cables for $10.48. I took the HD set to the counter. The guy says it'll be $4x.xx. I said uh no big red sticker on the front. The guy called his manager over.

She looks at it, looks at the rack, looks at it again, and at the rack again. She then whispers to the clerk, shakes her head and starts grabbed all the sets of HD-Cables. After she grabbed all 15-16 of them (I counted best as I could.) She told me it wasn't supposed to be clearanced. I said okay fine but I should get it for $10.48. She said no I cannot get it at that price. I got really pissed off and let them know it, and finally just left.

I mean fuck, 15+ mislabeled and I don't get (1)?
Some other manager could've not paid attention and sold them all for that and they'd be in real deep shit.
Fuck that pissed me off.

I then made it to EB and they had a used set for $14.99.
That's one time when EB actually won my money.

[georox]

I actually had a TRU problem recently. I was looking for 360 HD cables, and I browsed before going straight to where they were. I finally made it to that section, and they had them with a clearance sticker for $10.48. They also had the S-Video cables for $10.48. I took the HD set to the counter. The guy says it'll be $4x.xx. I said uh no big red sticker on the front. The guy called his manager over.

She looks at it, looks at the rack, looks at it again, and at the rack again. She then whispers to the clerk, shakes her head and starts grabbed all the sets of HD-Cables. After she grabbed all 15-16 of them (I counted best as I could.) She told me it wasn't supposed to be clearanced. I said okay fine but I should get it for $10.48. She said no I cannot get it at that price. I got really pissed off and let them know it, and finally just left.

I mean fuck, 15+ mislabeled and I don't get (1)?
Some other manager could've not paid attention and sold them all for that and they'd be in real deep shit.
Fuck that pissed me off.

I then made it to EB and they had a used set for $14.99.
That's one time when EB actually won my money.Man I'd *love* them to try that around here, there are all sorts of screwy laws in Michigan, and if they had that many marked wrong I'm pretty sure they legally have to sell it at that price in Michigan. Its kinda funny.

[cdrober]

*This is from the Gamestop in Prince Georges Plaza Mall in Maryland*

My experience isn't that bad or anything but I will share it anyways. Recently during the last B2G1 offer I wanted to do 2 DS games (Pheonix Wright, Final Fantasy 3) and 1 PS2 Game (Guitar Hero 1, game only; cuz I got my guitar w/ GH2). Anyways, the guy tells me that all three games must be for the same console. I ask him if he could just try it and see what happens, he says he has done it before and that the computer won't let him do it.

So then I ask for the corporate phone number, but he won't let me use his phone because it needs to be open in case people want to call in. So I stand there in the store and call on my cell phone. Promptly the guy from GS Customer Service, who promptly calls the store. At this point I hang up w/ CS cuz it was during the day and my cell phone didn't have any minutes.

This is what the employee said (I dont' know if he was the store manager, but he was in charge at the time...around 3/4pm on a weekday):

"So what code do I need to type in for it to ring up"......"That is the same code that I normally use, it won't work unless they are the same system"....."ohh, it worked"

Then I got my games and headed out...but haven't returned....

Anyways, thats my story....hope you like it a little :P

[Segasonic01]

I was at a Gamestop that I normally don't have problems with, but this really pissed me off. I wanted to buy a Beatmania controller I took it up to the register, & it had no price tag on it. They asshole employee behind the counter asks me why I would want to buy this with a stupid look on his face. I told him to find the price for it, which he couldn't. So he puts it behind the register & tells me he can't sell it. Corporate got a call about this one.

Aside from that, the only other major thing was a GS manager telling me PS1 wasn't a system anymore, but it also wasn't an accessory or game.

[drsuper23]

I usually try to go to the same Gamestop which has a couple of nice ladies that treat me really well and never give me any hassle. However, over the span of the last couple of years, I've was thrown out of one store for looking for penny guides, was told by one guy at a store that I could not return at hist store because it needed to be returned at the original store and was told by another manager that I couldn't return at his store because his sales would take a "crunch" and that I was stealing from that store because I was doing so. It all leads me to believe that they get a ton of preasure from their higher ups to be the biggest dicks in history and do just about anything to not have returns and make a profit.

Although at this point since I work in a retail store, I can understand the amount of crap they have to deal with.

[OzCatter]

I go into this Gamestop outside a mall yesterday(I like the one inside the mall, but their sale had been picked over) to find Diablo 2 for $10.

Now every GS I had been to had put the entire selection of sale items out, not this one apparently, plus the dick manager that I had problems with on the Wii launch(he tried to pull the "I didnt have a reservation" when I was the first one there on preorder day) was there.

So I ask why Diablo is priced at $20 when I can grab an ad(which the ones here have a complete list of onsale games) and there it says Diablo is 50% off. He tells me that they dont have to follow that, that they can make their own rules.

And I took my money elsewhere, lol

[bigwoof]

good experiences:
got yojimbo for $2
got hitchhickers galaxy for $5(list price $40)

[zman73]

Back in the days before I thought to look over games before purchasing... (yes I was naive and didnt think any place would take in scratched and stolen games... but then I met gamestop)

I went in during a Buy 2 get one free sale and picked up 3 games, the game in question was Half Life for the PS2... take it home and noticed the disc looked like it was wpied off with sandpaper... so I look through my bag, no reciept...

I take it back anyway and noitce the same people there from yesterday... and was refused an exchange on a game that was bought the day before

Not a horrid story... but I still hate the place with the constant barrage of questions and idiot employees... I remember overhearing one guy trying to get a customer to put down money on a PSP for launch, promising him that they were going to fetch upwards of 500 on ebay...lol

[Maxwell31]

Her's mine. It's from the $4.99 Gamestop UMD sale that had Dawn of the dead, Akira, Ghost in the shell, Appleseed, Ninja Scroll. The first sale not the Memorial Day edition.

Anyway, I order all five movies, received them about a week later. Open the box and four of the five movies were stolen with an attempt at the fifth. I called up and told them that four were gone and the fifth was attempted. Now, I could have just said all five were taken but I was being honest. I was told that they need to talk to there "Security team" to figure out what has to be done and they would call me. So could you send me a replacement because I knew they were going to be sold out soon? Mind you, all I wanted was a replacement! Was told no. A week goes by and no call. I called back and was told they refunded me for four of the five movies. Wait, you gave me a refund when I was expecting a phone call that I never got and assumed I wanted a refund. Also, why would I pay for a movie that was open, almost stolen and flopping around in the case? Well, there not in stock anymore so you get a refund.

Fastforward a week later. I go on-line and look to see if they had the movies. They did, I call back, can I have that replacement now since there in stock. NO! Why? because you were already refunded. I know that but I never wanted a refund and I was never called back to be asked what I wanted. Can't help you. Well at least send me a replacement for the movie that was flopping around. Wwwweeellllllllll, o.k..

Now I'm pissed, call back and ask to speak to a manager, he said that it was wrong what they did and that he would give them to me for the sale price even though the sale was over. I said great but don't send the same way again to avoid another possible problem. What does he do? Send them the exact same way they did the first time.

In the end I got my movies but was hassled for no reason! And I mean HASSLED!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. I just ordered three more UMD's from the holiday sale. Funny thing is I expect the same crap to happen to me again!

[jer7583]

CAG Project Mayhem on Gamestop?

Anyone?

[monkeydeew]

i had a few 3rd party 360 controllers that i took to a few diff GS. 2 of them said they did not accept 3rd party controllers, the third store said only 5$ credit and only one controller per transaction, then at the 4th store they took them in no problem at 10$ each. wth

[georox]

CAG Project Mayhem on Gamestop?

Anyone?Sign me up.

[IAmTheCheapestGamer]

LOL Project Mayhem? Does this include the former magazine rack tipping and glitter throwing mentioned in SO many posts prior?

[chosen1s]

I read the first page and some of this last page, and am blown away by what qualifies as some of you guys' "worst experiences ever".

I had one Manager who sold me a Dex Drive and told me I couldn't return it if it turns out to not be compatible with my pc. Well I hooked it up and the thing was broken (it was compatible, I even had one of my "geek" friends check it out). The guy had a hissy when I brought it back (not because it was incompatible, because it was defective). Publicly blasted and insulted me in front of the store and then kicked me out.

I've had NUMEROUS stores lie to me flat-out, just as many who told me mistruths due to pure ignorance, and had a number of employees attempt to give me one disc from a 2-disc set. I have also had employees 'fess up to having games in the hold drawers for months at a time but refuse to sell them to me.

My favorite was back in the day when 1/2 of Gamestops tried to enforce a "cheapest games" rule that made no logical sense. Buy 3 $50 games, and 3 $5 games, and they would insist on giving you two $5 games for free instead of one $50 game free, and one $5 game free. I walked out of one store leaving the employee scratching his head when I informed him that his idiot policy just cost him an extra 3-game purchase (the incentive to purchase the $5 games is a NEGATIVE $45). Worse yet were the stores that would threaten to kick you out for "taking advantage of them" if you tried to purchase in separate transactions.

If you posted on the first page, count your blessings. Gamestop and EB Games have done FAR WORSE to people than even the annoyances I have dealt with above.

[fenderhutz]

Not really a bad experience but when the Frederick MD Gamestop/Funcoland had the lawsuit going on where a certain employee was offering copied versions of Dreamcast games for incentives I was offered the incentives multiple times but never accepted.

It would have been REALLY bad if I was called to testify or some garbage.

[Filmire]

Mine just involves rude a rude store clerk.

I went into an EB games back when I lived in Michigan. I was looking for a new copy of Zelda: The Minish Cap for the GBA. This was several months after its release, so I didn't expect EB to have new copies, but I was already in the mall so I thought I would check.

I asked the clerk if they had any new copies, and he gives me this look as if I had just asked them if they had a Playstation "4". He goes on to say no, that they have several used copies though. He mentioned if I wanted a new copy, I "might" be able to get one off ebay for around $100. Uh huh...

I don't like buying used games because they're not always in the greatest of shape, and I'd just rather pay the extra $3-$5 and get a manual, case, and clean game.

I politely thank him for his time and intend to end the conversation and leave, but he suddenly seems intent on telling me there's no way I'll find a new copy and that I should buy a used copy - that he could even "reseal" it for me. (I never understand that, what, the game is suddenly "newer" because it's now shrink wrapped?)

I continue to say no thanks as I exit the store. I'm not sure if the clerk thought he was going to get me to buy a used copy by making me feel stupid for wanting a new one, but I never went back to that EB again. (To be fair, I moved to Washington a couple months later :-)

10 minutes later I was at the nearby Best Buy which had 3 new copies of the game sitting on the shelf. I bought one for $3 more than the EB wanted to sell a used copy for.

[jer7583]

LOL Project Mayhem? Does this include the former magazine rack tipping and glitter throwing mentioned in SO many posts prior?

I was thinking more like opening and taking EVERY case and manual for EVERY new product they have in the store, then seeing if they attempt to sell them as new.

Or replacing the display cases out on the shelf with hundreds of E.T. and Pac Man for the 2600, priced each at $17.99

Or a subliminal message somehow delivered to every customer entering the store that says "Worth more on Ebay"

[Chacrana]

I really don't have a terrible experience to share, but it was really annoying a couple days ago when I asked if the store had Odin Sphere. I got the standard "did you reserve it?" even though the game had already been out for some time, and the guy had the typical smartass "Well then we don't have any" response. I asked if any stores in the area had it and he said that the SKU wasn't even in the computer which means that no stores in the entire country have the game. I'm taken aback by this clearly ridiculous statement and I say "you can't be serious" to which the employee responds "I think I'd know what I'm talking about." Seriously, I don't understand what it is about the job that entitles employees to be complete dicks about everything. And I would be fucking shocked if there was honestly a Gamestop employee that had as much pointless game knowledge as I do... the difference is that I don't flaunt it like being a Gamestop cashier is all I'll ever amount to in life.

[tiredfornow]

Some moron tried to get me to pre-order Mario Party 8 by saying ''It has online play too, the first Wii game to have online play'' as if it was supposed to make me cream over it.. and I told him that there wasn't online play and it was just going to be a boring game unless you have friends with you. He continued on about ''I THINK I WOULD KNOW I WORK HERE WE GET ALOT OF INFO YOU GUYS DONT''..

fast forward to now, mario party 8 is out.. and there's no online multiplayer.. I go into the store and ask him what happened to the online multiplayer.. and he says 'I never said that, I was talking about pokemon battle revolution, wanna pre-order it?'


yeahhh jackass, good going. I guess my worst experience has been just given false ass information by someone who 'gets more info than I' ;]

[IAmTheCheapestGamer]

I was thinking more like opening and taking EVERY case and manual for EVERY new product they have in the store, then seeing if they attempt to sell them as new.

Or replacing the display cases out on the shelf with hundreds of E.T. and Pac Man for the 2600, priced each at $17.99

Or a subliminal message somehow delivered to every customer entering the store that says "Worth more on Ebay"

You know, back when I found my $17 copy of Baldurs Gate Dark Alliance II for Xbox, I kept looking around for 'spare' manuals and inserts in case my copy got destroyed when I left them up my one buddies house. But, I never went through with 'borrowing' one or more of their manuals/inserts, but I WANTED to.

BTW, the ET and PacMan part of your plan would be hilarious, since it does seem as if some GS employees really don't pay much attention to people who enter their store once they do the obligatory 'anything to trade in, wanna pre order xyz game?' routine.

Of course the best is when you walk in empty handed and they STILL feel they have to repeat that trade line, like I'm going to pull some games out of the Nth dimension for them to take in for next to nothing.

[jer7583]

That 17.99 price just pisses me off to no end. Every other place selling used games has them at $15 for $20 games, so WTF? 17.99 makes people round up in their heads as well. it seems they'd want to stick with 14.99 so people round down when just generally figuring prices.

You have to buy the damn value card just to get used games at the normal used price.

[Maxwell31]

Her's mine. It's from the $4.99 Gamestop UMD sale that had Dawn of the dead, Akira, Ghost in the shell, Appleseed, Ninja Scroll. The first sale not the Memorial Day edition.

Anyway, I order all five movies, received them about a week later. Open the box and four of the five movies were stolen with an attempt at the fifth. I called up and told them that four were gone and the fifth was attempted. Now, I could have just said all five were taken but I was being honest. I was told that they need to talk to there "Security team" to figure out what has to be done and they would call me. So could you send me a replacement because I knew they were going to be sold out soon? Mind you, all I wanted was a replacement! Was told no. A week goes by and no call. I called back and was told they refunded me for four of the five movies. Wait, you gave me a refund when I was expecting a phone call that I never got and assumed I wanted a refund. Also, why would I pay for a movie that was open, almost stolen and flopping around in the case? Well, there not in stock anymore so you get a refund.

Fastforward a week later. I go on-line and look to see if they had the movies. They did, I call back, can I have that replacement now since there in stock. NO! Why? because you were already refunded. I know that but I never wanted a refund and I was never called back to be asked what I wanted. Can't help you. Well at least send me a replacement for the movie that was flopping around. Wwwweeellllllllll, o.k..

Now I'm pissed, call back and ask to speak to a manager, he said that it was wrong what they did and that he would give them to me for the sale price even though the sale was over. I said great but don't send the same way again to avoid another possible problem. What does he do? Send them the exact same way they did the first time.

In the end I got my movies but was hassled for no reason! And I mean HASSLED!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. I just ordered three more UMD's from the holiday sale. Funny thing is I expect the same crap to happen to me again!



Here we go again, I told you theyed screw things up!

Just picked up my second order from them, it was from the holiday sale. I ordered Ultimate avengers, The replacement killers and Young guns. I received Starship troopers and Stealth. I call up, sorry about that, we'll get you a replacement. You can keep the two movies we sent by mistake, but.........if there is anything wrong with the replacement movies, ALL of them, including the ones there going to let me keep have to go back.

God, do they have a bunch of chimps working for this place or what?

[tindall311]

i tried to buy tales of the abyss a couple months ago from an eb in the mall
when i asked, he grabbed one of their generic used cases that had TOTA written on it and put the disc in.
i look at him and say i wanted it new. his reply is "oh, this is the display copy but someone stole the empty case. don't worry, its still brand new."

sooooo i walked out.

[encendido5]

Here's my worst:

http://www.cheapyd.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45772

I got a call back from the district manager, but nothing ever happened. I haven't been back to that store either so I don't even know if those guys are still there.

[Skylander7]

I know this is another one in a billion Gamestop gripes.. but I'm wanting to deviate from slaving in the cubicle, so I'll post three recent ones:

First being a recent purchase of Crackdown. Of course I marked out and bought the thing for the Halo beta, but I actually get a kick out of the game. I rented it, and went by to pick it up with spare credit I had after I took it back to Blockbuster. Rented copy never had a DRE.

Went in, and they had gutted 6 copies for display. WTF?? Kind of odd.. so the chubby bastard gives me the gutted copy and says "I promise this one is brand new." Kind of an odd comment, but I have seen them popping games in at this store and playing them.. but my dumbass didn't check. I was in a hurry to get home and nail the g/f. Did that.. popped the disk in.. and get a DRE 15 minutes into chasing down the Los Muertos. Pop out the disk, and what do you know.. surface scratches all over half the disc. Funny how you can't exchange a game bought as new, but can with a used (said that I had to trade it in).. after the beta, I'll probably contact MS to get a replacement disc or something as I kept the receipt (or at least try).

Second one kind of has to do with the last b2g1. I bought Chromehounds, Prey, Wii Play, Saint's Row, Stubbs, and Family Guy. I had to go to 5 different stores to switch out copies to go from scratched discs to decent condition.. one store wouldn't do it since I didn't buy it from their paticular store. Ended up going to a converted Rhino, and they didn't mind doing it at all. Most locations gave me hassle about it, and one in particular said that I had to purchase something to get an exchange. Luckily, nobody gives a damn at the ex-Rhino store and let me do the switch.

[Dragon_Master]

One time I went to GS wanting to buy Rayman:RR for the Wii. I looked but they had no used copies so I bought a new one. But when thay gave me the game it was opened I saw WTF and they told me that it was the display model and the last one they had. I was like its opened give it to me for the used price they said it was new. I bought it any ways but I was upset cause if I decided I didnt want it I could return it cause it was opened. So even if I had never played it I still couldnt have returned it cause it was opened. Luckily the game worked fine and I enjoyed it so I didnt have to worry about tring return it. But it still pisses me off that I paid full price for a opened game just because it was a display model.

[Mr Unoriginal]

One time I went to GS wanting to buy Rayman:RR for the Wii. I looked but they had no used copies so I bought a new one. But when thay gave me the game it was opened I saw WTF and they told me that it was the display model and the last one they had. I was like its opened give it to me for the used price they said it was new. I bought it any ways but I was upset cause if I decided I didnt want it I could return it cause it was opened. So even if I had never played it I still couldnt have returned it cause it was opened. Luckily the game worked fine and I enjoyed it so I didnt have to worry about tring return it. But it still pisses me off that I paid full price for a opened game just because it was a display model.

Here's an idea. Don't fucking buy it next time, or stop complaining.

[Dragon_Master]

Here's an idea. Don't fucking buy it next time, or stop complaining.


Well I had paid allready before they gave me the game after I got it I noticed it was opened. But there was a huge line behind me cause it was only like 8 days before christmas and I was late to be some place so I didnt bother fighting with them at the time.

[Scorch]

Well I had paid allready before they gave me the game after I got it I noticed it was opened. But there was a huge line behind me cause it was only like 8 days before christmas and I was late to be some place so I didnt bother fighting with them at the time.

Why the hell would you pay them before they go get the game? I ask to see the condition of every used game I get before I purchase it. I don't just hand over my money and then wait for them to get the game. That's like playing russian roulette.

[Dragon_Master]

Why the hell would you pay them before they go get the game? I ask to see the condition of every used game I get before I purchase it. I don't just hand over my money and then wait for them to get the game. That's like playing russian roulette.

It was supposed to be new so I didnt check it. I just handed them the money they gave me the reciept and than the game and when they gave me the game I noticed it was open and they told me it was the display model and that it was still new. But I couldnt return it cause I was late to be some place else and there was a line behind me and I ddnt feel like making a huge fight.

[georox]

Only time I've settled for a display was the EDF 2017 game, due to nowhere else even had a copy... they need to stop this display BS.

[jer7583]

I am PISSED.

Went to GS today to check out the B2G1 sale. I got two games for my new PSP and my sister got Hannah Montana for DS. She needed a screen protector too, so picked up a "clean screen pro" or some BS for $8, because it looked like it had screen protectors included, since the package says "protects and keeps your DS clean" well open the thing up, and there is just a tiny brush and little red peices that BORDER THE SCREEN. FOR $8 fucking dollars. There is no way someone would not think that screen protectors are included. Of course, it's gamestop brand accessories.

I am going to take this crap back tomorrow and if they give me shit.. I don't know. There may be magazine rack kickage.

If they're reasonable, they'll do an exchange, because I do come in there quite often, and so does my sister. Those accessory packages cost them probably less than a dollar to make, they had better do an exchange.

[VAD3R or Fro]

This was both a bad and good Gamestop experience.

I bought Tony Hawks American Skateland and I didnt like it. The thing was I bought it New but I just got the Case and the Game, no Manual. So I went to the store to see if I could return it, but the guy said I can only exchange it for another one. He then mentioned about the manual telling me about taking care of disks and I said there was no manual inside. So then he made a nice deal and said I can exchange it for another 50 dollar game and got Soul Calibur III instead. I kinda know the guy now since I go to the store once or twice a month. My local Gamestop isnt bad to tell the truth.

[Haggar]

The four worst that I can think of off the top of my head (in no order of douchebaggery):

A) When I bought a Gamecube shortly after it's release, the clerk would not let me buy it without an EB Games extended warranty. He said it was "company rules" and "automatically gets added to the final price". I obviously called bullshit, and even though I was going to get a warranty, because of his level of douchebaggery, refused the warranty.

B) All the EB Games stores around me automatically added the $3.00 game warranty without asking if you wanted it. So every time you bought a $50 game, it rang up as $53 before tax. When I noticed it, I called the clerk on it and he said "it's automatically added by the computer, I can't take it off". I did get him to "figure out" how to remove it, and then called EB Corporate, who apologizes profusely and then offered to have the DM call me too. I accepted, and when he called, he also apologized and blamed it on a miscommunication. A few days later, at another EB Games, I noticed they were STILL adding the game warranty without asking if your wanted it. I asked the manager who I was friendly with, and he said tons of people have complained, but the DM forces them to do it under threat of losing their jobs, and corporate doesn't care because it's making them tons of free money as he has the highest game warranty attach rate in the company.

C) I bought a PS2 when it originally came out, with an EB extended warranty. When it got DRE's, I returned it and the female manager said she didn't know if she had any used PS2's in stock to exchange it, so I might have to come back later. I told her that I was supposed to get a brand new PS2, and she argued that I was supposed to get used, and if they didn't have used, I got nothing until a used one was available. I told her when I bought the PS2 & warranty, I was told I would get a new one. She said the warranty was changed. I wasn't happy, but I took the used PS2. She was fired shortly after. It turns out, when someone brought in a warranty exchange, she would force a used system on them, then after they left, she would buy a used system herself, but take home a factory sealed system and sell it on eBay.

D) I bought a Halo 2 poster from EB Games and the clerk was promted to offer me a warranty for $3.00 extra. So he said "If your poster rips we will replace it for free if you buy the warranty". I called bullshit and he laughed and spun the monitor around so I could read the prompt myself.

And then there's the whole selling used games as new thing. And don't even try it, because I know tons of EB/GS employees, and they're allowed to open new games, sign them out, take them home & play them, then they bring them back & either sell them as "gutted copies" or reseal them to try to look factory sealed.

I really don't shop at EB/GS if I can avoid it. They're a shit company.

[norkusa]

And then there's the whole selling used games as new thing. And don't even try it, because I know tons of EB/GS employees, and they're allowed to open new games, sign them out, take them home & play them, then they bring them back & either sell them as "gutted copies" or reseal them to try to look factory sealed.

I really don't shop at EB/GS if I can avoid it. They're a shit company.


Yeah, this exactly is why I don't shop there any longer. After I got my 5th "new" display copy in a row, I finally said fuck 'em and haven't been back there since.

If more people don't boycott that dump, their policies won't change. Unfortunately, there's too many people out there that don't mind receiving $15 for trading in their new releases and paying $3 less than retail for used games.

[jer7583]

I figured selling them a 1gig stick they'll never sell for $35 which i got basically for free was okay.

[macdude22]

I just went into a Gamestop because they had that 50% off deal going on right now. Well I knew what I wanted so I told the guy Dragon Warrior VIII, Sonic Riders, Sonic Heroes. He's able to manage that I saw some of those lame tennis adapters for your wiimotes on clearance and I mentioned that I couldn't wait for a gun adapter to go with the new Resident Evils, bam he's instantly gone from reasonably cool to mega annoying. In the span of checking out my 3 games he asserted at least 5 times I should preorder it otherwise I wouldn't be able to get a copy. I was like man I'm not preordering it if I want it new I'll order it from Amazon cheaper. Goes on to insinuate I wouldn't be able to get a copy from anywhere with out preordering. Luckly this was a different Gamestop than the one lone one I know that seems to be staffed with real gamers who care about gamers. They don't seem to ever harrass the customers.

[Scorch]

This was both a bad and good Gamestop experience.

I bought Tony Hawks American Skateland and I didnt like it. The thing was I bought it New but I just got the Case and the Game, no Manual. So I went to the store to see if I could return it, but the guy said I can only exchange it for another one. He then mentioned about the manual telling me about taking care of disks and I said there was no manual inside. So then he made a nice deal and said I can exchange it for another 50 dollar game and got Soul Calibur III instead. I kinda know the guy now since I go to the store once or twice a month. My local Gamestop isnt bad to tell the truth.

Now the question here is how'd you get him to exchange a DS game for a full price PS2 game?

Or did you mean American Wasteland?

And then there's the whole selling used games as new thing. And don't even try it, because I know tons of EB/GS employees, and they're allowed to open new games, sign them out, take them home & play them, then they bring them back & either sell them as "gutted copies" or reseal them to try to look factory sealed.

And yet again, I say that it's a district by district thing. They put a stop to that here in 2003.

[jer7583]

I know some places don't do it, but as recent as last year, there were friends of mine who worked at gamestops and regularly took games out for "rent" no matter if they were used or new. It's shitty.

[depascal22]

I love how they always want you to think that you're going to miss out on a game if you don't pre-order. I was in a Gamestop a couple years back buying KOTOR. As I'm waiting for cashier to find my game, I'm flipping through the new release book sitting there. As he finds my game, I see that Virtua Fighter 4: Evo is releasing soon. As he's turning around, I ask about it. His eyes bulge out and he goes on about how Virtua Fighter is the greatest. At first, I'm glad I found another Virtua Fighter fan. I let him go on but he ends up stumping for about five minutes. His co-worker just sits there nodding his head like he's listening to Billy friggin Graham. So he's ringing me up after his speech, and he throws a five dollar deposit down for VF. I start to get agitated because I never asked to pre order VF. He then said, "Everyone's asking about this game. You'll need to pre order it to guarantee that you'll get it." I replied that it doesn't have any online play so it's not a biggie if I get it a couple weeks later. He then replies with, "Don't you understand? You're gonna miss out on the best fighting game EVAR!!!" He even gets all bug eyed when he says it. I laugh for a second and tell him to take off the pre order and I'll go on my way. He literally stares at me for a minute without doing anything. I ask if he' deaf and he still sits there. Eventually, he just shakes his head and says, "Is there anything else you want today? Maybe a pre order on an upcoming release?" Needless to say, I boogied out of there once I got the game in my hands.

The same guy did something even crazier a few months before. A kid (around 11 or 12) was looking to spend some of his birthday money. He had a copy of Madden but I could hear him tell his brother he didn't want to blow all his money on Madden. So he finds a used PS1 copy of Madden and a copy of Gran Turismo 3 and goes up to the counter. Bug eyed dude started laughing and told the kid he should get the PS2 version. The kid said he wanted two games instead of one and then guy goes off about online capablities, improved graphics. The kid just goes, "It's a football game. If I can't smell the grass, it's not all that great." The guy goes all crazy and says, "Since you have a PS2, I can't sell you a PS1 game that we also have for PS2. Sorry." The kid's practically in tears now since this guy just ruined his day. He buys Gran Turismo 3 and walks out. As I'm walking out, the kid comes back in with his dad. As I'm driving out, I drove by the front to see the kid's dad basically jumping over the counter to strangle the guy. Good times.

[IAmTheCheapestGamer]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA Now, that SECOND story, I WOULD LOVE to see occur around here. So many know it all cashiers at the GS stores here, but also a couple CAGs I found out.

The one guy works for Kmart AND GS AND is a CAG, so he just kinda smirked when I brought up a couple guides about 4 months ago(before they cracked down) and said 'penny guide list?'. The other guy works for the one EB I'm kinda well known at(actually, I think I'm well known at them all cause the one girl saw me at Wally World the other night n said HEY) and let me grab like 4 copies of the Bad Day LA PC game that pennied. But, I think he said he's more or less a lurker on here, but despises his DM who ordered the crackdown.

I would die laughing though if some kids father came back in and blasted one of the clerks for going off on his kid.

[Allnatural]

Reading these stories I realize how fortunate I am that the EB/GS employees in my area are generally cool. Cool enough that if I ask for a new game and all they have is the display copy they'll say, "We have it, but it's been gutted. Do you still want it?"

I always so "no" of course.

[Lieutenant Dan]

If I threw glitter on some GS employees, would I get into any kind of legal trouble?

[danny-o]

I walked into an EB with my girlfriend to pick up Ultra Bust A Move for the XBOX. The clerk was on his cell phone and paid us no attention. I saw the box on the wall (meaning that theres at least a last copy thats opened). So we bring it to the counter and the guy puts the phone down and goes..."AWW we just sold the last one 5 minutes ago!" This was in the morning on a weekday so I doubt that anyone just bought this game just before we came in... So anyway I ask him why theres a display box left and he says he didn't know..then he refused to look it up in the computer. So as soon as I turned around he was back on the phone. I called later that day after his shift was done and the other guy on the phone told me they did in fact have a last copy in there. I told him about the other clerk and he tried to cover for him by saying that the computer might not show the last copy..I even got him to look in the computer to see if somone bought the game that morning..he told me no they didnt. The guy that was on the phone was gone shortly after,

[jer7583]

what is with gamestop employees just plain being rude? It's such a bad trend.. iknow it's not 100% of the time, but it's pretty common.

[Derrick1979]

what is with gamestop employees just plain being rude? It's such a bad trend.. iknow it's not 100% of the time, but it's pretty common.

It seems as for some reason they think they are above the person that comes into the store to buy games... I find that funny when half the customers know more about games then they do.. But in all they are behind the counter and they have the hand scanner so bow to the almighty...

Man if it wasn't for the stock of older harder to find titles I would never shop at that place.. My brother works at Bestbuy im going to have to start using him as my outlet to get games... the hardest part is waiting sometimes til the major retail stores get the stock in.. Thats EB/Gamestop's only advantage...

[tangytangerine]

what is with gamestop employees just plain being rude? It's such a bad trend.. iknow it's not 100% of the time, but it's pretty common.

Three words: minimum wage pay.

[MrX]

Im sure it has been said before but I am too lazy to look. I HATE GOING. They are all bleeding idiots and try and puch crap on ya that you dont want. I spent the last of my store cred there with the latest b2g1 and I am done with them....

[necrojustice]

A coworker of mine had no complaint about EB selling gutted games as new
fucking ridiculous!

[LanceJr]

I was in the mall last night to get some Panda Express and jumped in EB for a few while they made new orange chicken. I'm just hanging out by the Wii section hear the counter. Guy comes in to buy Shadowrun. Why I dont know, but whatever. The clerk asked if he wanted tp pre-order anything and the gu ysaid no he's all set. Clerk rings up the game and doens't say anything to the guy, and the guy has his credit card out and clerk says to swipe it through. He does so, and bags the game and puts the receipt in the bag. Customer walks away and comes back into the store, and yells at the clerk "WHY THE HELL IS THERE A HALO3 PRE ORDER ON MY RECEIPT AND I WAS CHARGED $5, FOR IT?!?!?!?

Clerk says " I figured since you bought Shadowrun you would want Halo so I added it for you". The guy yelled again demanded his money back for the preorder, and return Shadowrun, and also said he was filing a complaint with the BBB, and wanted to talk to a manager. 630p on a Monday of course there isnt one, and he left so pissed. I was laughing to myself, and the clerk asked me what I was laughing at and I said your stupid ass and left.

Orange Chicken is damn good

[jer7583]

Minimum Wage or not, being nice to the customer/customer is always right is the BARE MINIMUM first thing you should get right when working at retail.

I've seen managers act this way too.. it's absurd.

[Rozz]

I went into EB and for some reason the employee started getting nice to me, talking to me while I was looking at some clearance PSX games. And then I realized why, he started talking about pre-ordering Halo 3 Legendary Edition and how it'll be extremely rare and worth hundreds of dollars down the line even though it's going to be mass produced and costs $130 :roll:

And then at the end of it I brought up some cheap games and said "can you let me know how much these would be after the discount"? and the idiot employee rolled his eyes and said "Um, yeah sir, I can tell you how much these are off the top of my head" in a sarcastic tone.

[Lieutenant Dan]

I think it's a mix between minimum wage, the obvious lack of training, and the pressure they're under to get people to preorder things. That and shitty management.

[zman73]

Yeah, this exactly is why I don't shop there any longer. After I got my 5th "new" display copy in a row, I finally said fuck 'em and haven't been back there since.

If more people don't boycott that dump, their policies won't change. Unfortunately, there's too many people out there that don't mind receiving $15 for trading in their new releases and paying $3 less than retail for used games.


I rarely shop from them, never trade in anything. I hate the stores, I hate that they take in ANYTHING no matter the condition, knowing alot of the games were probably stolen. What is sad was a recent search in the news revealed how well gamestop is doing... meaning less for the consumer.

Eb used to be great to order from online with the stackable coupons and daily "specials"... those dried up quickly... Rhino was my source for trade ins (never once was hasssled about trade ins the moment I walked in the store)before GS gobbled them up... I now wait for most games to drop significantly in price before I buy them, less time for games and a glut of games in backlog afford me the luxury

[IAmTheCheapestGamer]

The absolute BEST has to be if you're the ONLY customer to come into the store and the brain dead register jockey sees you come in empty handed, but STILL asks if you have any games to trade. I would love to say the following, just for the raised eyebrows and weird look I'd get.

Me: Yeah, lemme pull them outta the Nth dimension I stashed them in. Hold on, I gotta be careful I don't let a demon out from the 5th plane.

Clerk:<raising eyebrows and looking like 'whoa'>

[jer7583]

i would just dookie a shooter right in his piggish face

[gorgonzola238]

The absolute BEST has to be if you're the ONLY customer to come into the store and the brain dead register jockey sees you come in empty handed, but STILL asks if you have any games to trade. I would love to say the following, just for the raised eyebrows and weird look I'd get.

Me: Yeah, lemme pull them outta the Nth dimension I stashed them in. Hold on, I gotta be careful I don't let a demon out from the 5th plane.

Clerk:<raising eyebrows and looking like 'whoa'>

I think the are preprogrammed drones. Kinda scary.

[norkusa]

The absolute BEST has to be if you're the ONLY customer to come into the store and the brain dead register jockey sees you come in empty handed, but STILL asks if you have any games to trade. I would love to say the following, just for the raised eyebrows and weird look I'd get.



Yeah, I was always amazed at this too. If they'd ask, I'd just stop in my tracks, look down at myself in a confused manner with my arms raised and say "uhhhh....nope, doesn't look like I brought any with me".

Of course they'd get pissed off after that but hell, serves them right for asking such a stupid question.

[zerowing]

Well I never really had too many problems with EB/GS, just a once opened copy sold as new but I really didn't care at the time, I just wanted the game (haven't gone back to that EB yet though). When I moved to college I even got really friendly with alot of the employees and I was never pressured to buy anything or asked if I had any games to trade in. Well I come home from college and I happen to live about 40 miles from my dentist (who I have gone to for ages so no real sense in changing) and I checked online if any of the EB/GS had any Gamecube Broadband adapters in that area. Apparently 2 stores had 1-3 so I wrote their numbers down for calling the next day.

After my dentist job I made 2 calls to the 2 store to double check.
First store I call:
me: "Says online you have Gamecube Broadband adapters, is this true?"
guy: "Let me check......all I see is GameBoy Play...Nevermind yeah we have one."
me: "Thanks"

Second store:
me: "Says online you have Gamecube Broadband adapters, is this true?"
guy: "One second, yes we do, would you like me to save it for you?
me: "Sure, my names Paul."

Well I drive to the first one since they didn't save it for me and I had a pretty terrible experience. I walk in and see a huge line and I look around for the accessories and don't find them so I am forced to wait in line to ask about the adapters. I get to the front:
me: "Yeah do you have any Gamecube broadband adapters?"
guy: "Ah you're the guy that called?" guy starts going to the back
me: "Could I get the GameBoy Player as well?"
guy comes back and rings the 2 things up, then starts pushing everything you could imagine on me
guy: "I'm sure you have an Edge card"
me: "um no"
guy: "want one?"
me: "no"
guy: "you sure? you can get this for half off right now.
me the CAG intrigued: "get the accessories half off?"
guy: "yeah"
me: ""how much is this card?"
guy: "$14 but if you buy now you get it for $7"
me seeing through his scam: "and I get the accessories full price right?"
guy: "yeah...(realizes I don't want it now), but you get a full year of GameInformer"
me: "I don't read, so no"
guy apparently done pushing Edge card starts to look down upon me now: "You know the Gamecube won't have any new games other than Madden 08 an dI suggest you preorder that"
me starting to get frustrated, I want this transaction done: "uh yeah and why do I need to do that?"
guy: "Might be hard to get."
me: no response
guy finally finishes the transaction but decides to get one more thing in: "Any other games you want to preorder?"
me: "Please stop"
guy: "you sure?"

He continues pushing shit like Mario Party 8, GameBoy games for the Player, and even a preorder for the Halo Zune. Alas if I didn't need the adapter I would've just walked out a long time ago and I was pretty fed up as I spent about 20 minutes in a store I wanted to be in and out in like 5. I won't be back at that store any time soon.

Second store supposedly held a second adapter for me but I guess I got there after a shift change and the current guy couldn't find it anywhere, he was very helpful and looked everywhere at least twice, and said that no one ever tells him anything that is going on and I am forced to leave without a second adapter. This is a common occurence I see, no communication between shifts and leaving the second shift in the dark to plenty of matters.

[sguttmann]

i was this close to taking EB to court.

this was back at around 2001 when max payne came out. i tried to price match from a bb ad but the manager told me that bb was not their competitor. fine. next week, cc had the same game on sale so i went back to that store to get a match but again the manager refused claiming that the price listed on the cc flier was a misprint. so i asked him about their pricematching policy. he stated that they would only pricematch from other EB stores. image that! i brought this up to consumer affairs and they helped me file a complaint which eventually led to a court date. the day before the expected date, the regional manager called me to settle out of court. of course i did not want anything substantial in return, so i just requested for a letter listing all of their competitors.

talk about shady...

[jer7583]

should have seen the temper tantrum this manager threw when my manager tried to return that fake screen protector pack.. he couldn't argue with the "within 7 days policy" so he just sounded angry and bashed on his computer keyboard :D made me real happy! She got an exchange for a real screen protector with a twisty stylus.

[norkusa]

should have seen the temper tantrum this manager threw when my manager tried to return that fake screen protector pack.. he couldn't argue with the "within 7 days policy" so he just sounded angry and bashed on his computer keyboard :D made me real happy! She got an exchange for a real screen protector with a twisty stylus.

Holy shit. Why does he care so much? He acts like you're taking money out of his pocket by returning the damn thing.

[jer7583]

because he's a class AAA certified...

DOUCHE

[davo1224]

I tried returning some stuff from the BOGT sale and they told me I couldn't get my money back. It's exchanges, store credit, or trade-ins only. WOW. Talk about desperate for sales. I ask him to show me where it says that applies. He actually took my card and was going to put it all on store credit without me telling me too. That was ridiculous. Well I ended up leaving and returning it anyway just at a different store. That was beyond stupid. Not only did he lose the sale he was clinging onto, he lost future ones too. REALLY stupid.

[IAmTheCheapestGamer]

Holy shit. Why does he care so much? He acts like you're taking money out of his pocket by returning the damn thing.

That sounds like some of the people here who defend GS's policies and are CONSTANTLY parroting 'if you don't like their policies, don't shop there'. I won't mention any names, but I'm pretty sure most know who I'm talking about. :-#

[whoknows]

I tried returning some stuff from the BOGT sale and they told me I couldn't get my money back. It's exchanges, store credit, or trade-ins only. WOW. Talk about desperate for sales. I ask him to show me where it says that applies. He actually took my card and was going to put it all on store credit without me telling me too. That was ridiculous. Well I ended up leaving and returning it anyway just at a different store. That was beyond stupid. Not only did he lose the sale he was clinging onto, he lost future ones too. REALLY stupid.
Happened to me too.

I was returning a game because it was scratched to hell and there were no others to replace it. He was about to give me store credit and I told him I paid with cash and I want cash back. Eventually after trying not to let me he gives in. It was complete bullshit.

[davo1224]

The best part was how he first accused me of trying to return the free games for full price.

[depascal22]

Not to be devil's advocate but GS does get all sort of asshole customers that walk in like they own the place. I've seen many arrogant guys that I thought might be CAGs walking around giving "free" advice to people. Guy ended up getting kicked out because the manager said he was "soliciting". They also get the ghetto kids that bring in stolen goods only to have the cops show up 2 days later to take back games. That's what started the whole ID policy.

[davo1224]

That I understand. It just sucks when they treat everyone like a criminal. It's really not that serious.

[YoshiFan1]

My worst recent one was yesterday, I was trading in some games. Normally I would never do that but they were disc only and had no value so it wasn't worth EBaying them and they are the only place I know that takes disc only games so I figured I would take anything for them.

I had 6 games, and the clerk kept asking me if I wanted to sign up for the game informer subscription and 10% bonus. I told him no, he asked me 5 more times and I kept saying know. He was saying how I'll get an extra 40% with the card and he's just trying to help me save money. I of course questioned that and said don't I get the extra 30% without the card? (I knew the answer was yes).

I understand they need to sell the cards but after I said no once, or twice at the most he should have stopped asking me

[maguszxz]

My local store is ran by bumbling incompents. The only hard working person is my buddy, Vic(we used to work together when it was Rhino's). I goes in for Diablo 2, that all I want for 10 bucks because of the Game Days sale. I get there when they just open looking for this game. None on the shelf or anywhere. I asked one of the dudes if they have it. BTW, he was dressed like he was about to play b-ball after work (smelled like it too) He pulls it out from the case. My eye light up and then short out when he says 20 bucks. I said, it's on sale for $10. His bud, looks at me as if I was going to jump the corner(like I couldnt kiss his skinny butt). He said only games that are marked down are the ones on sale. He didn't even take the time to scan it. Top it off, my cousin Jackie is asking me questions about the game as I leave the store, fumming. That's the reason I go to another store 30 miles away to get my games now.
Gamestop has taken all the love I have for gaming B&M stores. I get my stuff from BB and Ebay.

[IAmTheCheapestGamer]

Not to be devil's advocate but GS does get all sort of asshole customers that walk in like they own the place. I've seen many arrogant guys that I thought might be CAGs walking around giving "free" advice to people. Guy ended up getting kicked out because the manager said he was "soliciting". They also get the ghetto kids that bring in stolen goods only to have the cops show up 2 days later to take back games. That's what started the whole ID policy.

Hehehehe Sounds like me sometimes, as I'll try and 'help out' my fellow gamers by either mentioning CAG to them or telling them where they can avoid having to buy someones overpriced, scratched up and abused copy of XYZ game and where they can get it for radically cheaper than GS.

I told the one woman about guides being 'pennied' and told her I had xyz and abc guides in my car that she was looking for. The one clerk(who was a CAG and just recently quit) just kinda looked at me n smirked as I walked out to my car with her and her daughter and proceeded to sell them the guides for $5 each. Of course, I had just bought or been given those guides at the SAME store by that same clerk maybe an hour earlier.

As long as a gamer I see looking around @ GS seems cool and all, I'll tell them to check out CAG to avoid overpaying for their games. Everybody out there wants to save a little money sometime, right? Plus, I get to 'stick it' to GS in the process. :lol:

[monkeydeew]

'im technically only allowed to transfer your preorder deposit to another preorder...'

[io]

guy: "I'm sure you have an Edge card"
me: "um no"
guy: "want one?"
me: "no"
guy: "you sure? you can get this for half off right now.
me the CAG intrigued: "get the accessories half off?"
guy: "yeah"
me: ""how much is this card?"
guy: "$14 but if you buy now you get it for $7"
me seeing through his scam: "and I get the accessories full price right?"
guy: "yeah...(realizes I don't want it now), but you get a full year of GameInformer"
me: "I don't read, so no"



Well, damn, I just renewed my Edge card at my favorite EB (went out of my way to go there and do it since they have been cool to me in the past). They did it for the full $15. I would have LOVED to get it for half off. I fail to see how this was a horrible experience - I've never heard of getting the sub for half off, I would have jumped all over it. I renewed mine just to make up for all the stuff they did for me last year since with their lack of trade-in deals I'll probably not get $15 out of it this year (I DEFINITELY did last year during the trade 3 get an extra $10 deal). And I don't buy that many used games to make up for it that way. Oh well, at least I get Game Informer now (didn't get it last year since I had the old $5 EB Egde card).

I am, however, apprehensive about a visit I need to make to the worst-run EB in the area (used to be one of the better ones, but it all changed when new people came in). I have a fully-paid Mario Party 8 preorder (from the trade 2 Wii games deal) that I need to switch to something else. I can just see them telling me I have nothing there...

[IAmTheCheapestGamer]

'im technically only allowed to transfer your preorder deposit to another preorder...'

LOL If I ever got around to going back to those two stores I found SO MANY guides n other stuff at that I felt I 'needed' to preorder GOW II and Transformers to try and get back my $10 total and they gave me that shit, I'd pull a glitter stick out n make their games look prettier than usual. LOL

[Rodimus]

Holey Moley, I had no idea my old EB/GS thread was still around. I'd like to add a story but I can't remember the last thing I even bought at an EB or GS, possibly my Wii.

I did trade in some old crappy 3rd party X-Box conrollers a week ago and was surprised I got $16 out of it. Besides the entire Edgecard/ Preorder speech it was actually a good experience.

[tangytangerine]

Hehehehe Sounds like me sometimes, as I'll try and 'help out' my fellow gamers by either mentioning CAG to them or telling them where they can avoid having to buy someones overpriced, scratched up and abused copy of XYZ game and where they can get it for radically cheaper than GS.

Yeah, I do that too. Seems like once in a while when I'm in the GS I go to, someone always picks up the used copy of Silent Hill 2 or 3(PS2). Then they realize the price and that's when I point out to them that SH 2 is $10 & SH3 is $12.99 at Game Crazy. I like to do that cause it saves the customer money.

There was another where I swear the employee was so pissed he was wanting to throw me out. It was right before they marked down all their PS1 for 75% off. A mom, dad & a kid walk in and look at the PS1 games, ask the employee if they had any racing games, of course they have no way to look it up. So off to the rack they went only to find stuff above $10, so I pointed out that Game Crazy carried PS1 games and to check there.

That employee gave me a "I swear to god, I'm going to fucking kill you"look cause he just lost the sale. But, hey, where your crap is overpriced, the store is only hurting itself.

[SaraAB]

I have done that before too, but whats scary is that sometimes even the employees of the store frequently tell people who are having trouble beating video games to go to gamefaqs to get a free online strategy guide for the game. Sometimes customers will ask a person who looks like they know something for an opinion as well in which case I give an honest opinion. And I cannot count the times I was able to sway parents into buying non-movie games for their kids instead of buying the crappy movie games, also once I sold a GBA SP to a person in TRU, lol, taking the employees place.

I also yelled "this store sells BOOTLEG gba games", or something like that in a gamestop once when I spotted some obvious fake pokemon games on the rack and the manager refused to remove them. The store was chock full of customers at the time.

[Dark Slayer120]

I don't shop at Game stop/Eb anymore. I mostly only shop at Game Crazy since I know all the guys there and they give me nice deals, and occasionally Best Buy. The last time I was in Gamestop/EB is when I found SMT DDS1/and Nocturne there complete and the discs were in decent condition I guess. Well these two big fat employees had food and drinks up by the register (which I could care less at the time) started ringing me up. I gave him my money he just added the games to the case and started talking to the other guy when he playfuly shoved the other fat guy who of course had no fucking balance what so ever flung his arms back and knocked over his large cup of Pepsi which of course went all inside my cases with the discs in it. (Since he didn't shut the cases yet because of the other fat dude talking to him)

He had the reaction to pick the fucking cup up of a slug so almost all of the soda poured into both cases all over the discs. Now I am not a dick but these guys really pissed me off. Now I am thinking he will give me my money back because there is no way he could think I want these now. He then was like "sorry dude, we'll wipe these off and they will be good to go. I literally stood there and said "You're kidding me right?" They kinda stopped and looked at me like I was crazy. I said these discs are ruined and if they aren't I don't want to be paying close to $100 for them now. He was like well dude you already paid for them they will be fine, I said yeah before you knocked your fucking large cup of Pepsi on them which btw should be on the back of the fucking counter any how! I was shocked that he was really considering giving me two damaged discs now and even if they still worked the fuck if I want them now that soda filled the cases up/ruined the discs. After about 10 minutes of arguing back and forth, saying well i can give you store credit, and me saying I want my cash back he got mad and said here then here is your god damn money!! I grabbed it and walked off, and that was the last time I have been in a Game stop/Eb. I refuse to support them no matter how good there deals are. What fucking jack asses...

[Demolition Man]

I told the one woman about guides being 'pennied' and told her I had xyz and abc guides in my car that she was looking for. The one clerk(who was a CAG and just recently quit) just kinda looked at me n smirked as I walked out to my car with her and her daughter and proceeded to sell them the guides for $5 each. Of course, I had just bought or been given those guides at the SAME store by that same clerk maybe an hour earlier.

You know I think its funny of how many times you bitch about the unethicalness of EB/GS yet you turn around and sell something you paid a penny for at $5. And after you admitted that you paid a penny for them too. If I were that woman I would said "great, I'll buy them from you for a penny too."

[IAmTheCheapestGamer]

You know I think its funny of how many times you bitch about the unethicalness of EB/GS yet you turn around and sell something you paid a penny for at $5. And after you admitted that you paid a penny for them too. If I were that woman I would said "great, I'll buy them from you for a penny too."

But, she didn't and imo, $5 is still cheaper than $15-20. That's what I charge on here per guide, but I do that price SHIPPED for most. So, it comes down to like $2-3 at most once you factor in that shipping a single guide costs $2-3 usually.

But, I do see where you're coming from and I have said just that to the people at GS when it comes up .01 on their screen(that I want it for a penny), but they try and do a quick override on me.

[monkeydeew]

after she bought the guide did you ask her to trade it in and preorder something?

[Ski Hawk]

Surprisingly, I have no bad stories no share. My GS/EB stores all have great employees.

[davo1224]

I used to not have a problem with any of them. A lot of them are just really desperate for sales though and either will give you a super hard time trying to return something or they'll act like you need to buy something to be in the store.

[Tsukento]

Oh boy. I've got a couple myself.

Back when Dreamcast was pretty much being phased out everywhere once Sega stopped supporting it, I was grabbing up whatever used copies I could afford from GameStop. I spotted a copy of Street Fighter Alpha 3, bought it and brought it home. The game would not load up. Period. Dreamcast would attempt reading it and go to the main system menu. Tried loading it while the Dreamcast was already on. No go. Tried a friend's system and got the same result.

So I return to the store and explain my problem. They go through their drawer while I look around and then hand me the game. I head back home and pop the game in. Isn't loading up like the last one. So I go back and tell them that the damn thing doesn't start up. They ask if it's my Dreamcast, I tell them it isn't considering all my other games work. I ask for ANOTHER exchange and this time, I waited by the side with my eyes to the side, watching them fumble through the drawer.

What do I see? The employee not only grabs THE SAME DISC I BROUGHT IN but he also attempts to make it look like he was swapping discs. I catch him red handed and immediately ask him what the hell he was doing. He said they didn't have any other copies and was going to "toss the disc away." I demand my money back and get refunded. On my way out, I see the guy placing the disc away and putting the case back on the shelf. Never went there again.

Skip years on to last year. Went to a newer GameStop in a different area I moved to and asked the clerk how much a used Xbox was. He told me it was just dropped down to $99 (at the time), so I went and grabbed it. I also grabbed a game and paid for the two items. I handed him my Edge Card to do the 10% discount on the game. Hands me the card back and I'm getting ready to use my debit card right when I then hear the receipt being printed. The jackoff didn't ask if I wanted to use my credit towards the purchase. I tell him to hold on and redo that because I wanted to use my card, not my credit. He gave me one of those looks like as if I had done something wrong and coldly said "You should have said something before! We're close to closing time, you know!" Redid everything and got my credit back. Turns out the guy was the manager.

Had another moment where I went to a different GameStop and decided to grab a couple of games. I bought Fable: The Lost Chapters and a couple of PSOne games. As I'm heading out, I notice the Fable disc isn't FTLC, but just regular Fable. A couple of the PSOne games were the actual games I asked for, either. So I returned and had them exchanged for the appropriate ones.

Finally, a couple of weeks ago, I went to a GameStop in my mom's area and noticed they had a TON of old games for the picking. Two things I noticed were Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy Anthology. I ask if they had any of their PSOne games in their drawers, to which they replied they didn't. I was puzzled because I then showed them the *empty* case for Final Fantasy Anthology and the lone Disc 2 of Chrono Cross. Guy just laughed and replied "Guess we got jacked." He put them aside and began scanning the other games. Gave him my card to add to the 75% discount. Everything seems normal.

Until he starts with the questions. "What systems you got? Any new ones? Want to reserve Mario Party 8? How about Halo 3? You're definately gonna want to get the Legendary edition!" Each one I kept shutting him down and he kept coming out with a new question. So I finally leave and check my receipt. The moron didn't scan my card properly, so I didn't get a 10% deduction from the used games. I go back inside and tell him about it. "But I did scan it right. Maybe that offer doesn't work with the card?" I assured him that it was his mistake as I had NEVER been turned down with the card for the PSOne, N64 and Dreamcast games being 75% off. He just shrugged and said it wasn't his fault. I left in disgust.

As I'm heading to the car, I'm checking my discs. Son of a bitch. Gex: Enter the Gecko had tape on it. I'm assuming tape was placed on the CD to keep it inside the case due to possible faulty clips that hold the CD.

No. I take the CD out and find that it's actually a CRACKED DISC TAPED TOGETHER. I bring it back in and the same douche asks "How do I know you didn't just do that? We always check our games." At this point, I had enough. I wasn't going to fight over a broken game that costed me $1.25. I just threw it back into his pile, told him to eat shit and left.

Never again.

[IAmTheCheapestGamer]

Now, that right there is classic GS nonsense. A cracked disc held together with tape? ROFL Seriously, I would've taken the tape off and flung the two halves at him ninja style n hopefully one piece would hit his eyes, which need a good checking.

The shmucks at the one local GS to me(where most of the clerks/managers just left or were fired) are holding 90-95% of their PS1/N64 games in the back till they 'do their inventory' supposedly. Something tells me from the evasive answers I kept getting that there's MORE than just old Madden games in that collection. I'd contact their DM about it, but he's the douche who put a kibosh on the pennied stuff leaving his stores, so I know how much he cares about real customer service.

[Demolition Man]

after she bought the guide did you ask her to trade it in and preorder something?

And did you ask her for warranty coverage on those guides?

Oh, and trade ins!

[IAmTheCheapestGamer]

Are you talking to ME Demolition Man or Monkeydeew now? Either way...I'm not nor will I EVER be a GS employee. Too many rings to have to jump through just to keep your job there.

$5 is still better than $15-20 imo.

[nhamze]

I went into Gamestop in my local mall yesterday to take advantage of their Buy 2 get one free sale. First thing is when I get in there it is wall to wall people so I make my way over to the psp section, on the way over there some guy pushes me into the dvd bin the one that sits in the middle of the store and I cut a two inch gash in the back of my leg, that should have been a sign that this was going to be a bad day, but its ok I get some napkins from Cinnabun and go back. They have a pretty poor selection but I really needed someone to do so I pick up pirates, blade dancer, and some rpg I can't remember what. But first I wait in line for like 10 minutes while this kid is trying to convince his mom to give him some more money and I get there and the guy turns around to get my games, he is down there for like 5 minutes and he calls his buddy over, they are talking about something then he goes to his computer and he comes back and tell me that they don't have two of those games. These are regular cases too not the ones that gamestop makes, how to they not have two games but they have their cases and instructions.

Also about a year ago I went in to buy a DS game, I pick it off the shelf and go to pay for it and the manager tells me that I can't buy just one thing because he gets written up for every transaction that only has one item, I guess that want him to upsell other things. So he tells me I need to find something else so he convinces me me buy one of those cleaning clothes in the bag. That stuck me as odd, even if that have that order from management why would he tell a customer that.

Last story I promise I went and preordered castlevania for the DS the first day you could start preordering it. Not really a fan of the game but I really liked the preorder deal. So I go there the day it came in to pick up a copy. Tell them my name pay for it and he hands me the game, I ask him where my preorder is and he tell me that they didn't get enough of them and they had like 7 of them and I was number 8. So then I return the game, I wasn't going to pay full price for this game, I really just wanted to preorder, but I tell him that if someone doesn't pick it up call me and I will come in and buy the game to get the preorder. I go there tomorrow to pick up a different DS game and they same guy, the manager, tell me we found an extra preorder pack but I am not going to give it to you. Now I didn't care that they weren't going to let me have it but why did he have to tell me so, for all I knew they didn't have any more. He was going out of this way to be a jerk.

/ends rant

[Gothic Walrus]

My story got its own thread:
http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138621

[Patriot]

This was right around the time that the Xbox 360 was released. The core was pretty available in my area but the premium was another story. I called about 8 GameStops and finally found one with I think around 6 premiums. I asked her how long she could hold one for, and she said they can't hold them but if I come within the next HOUR, I would be able to get one.

Ten minutes later, I get there and the same lady says "Sorry, we just sold out, but we do have cores." I was so pissed I seriously started yelling at her and ran out of the store.

[Bravelionheart]

My three stories:

So, one day I'm in a GS browsing around, as normal, and findng diddily. As I continue to browse, I hear a kid and his mother talking to a GS employee. They're asking about FFXI for the 360 and whether they need the hard drive 360 or the Core. The employees look absolutely clueless and prattle on about how they don't know. So they call other EBs/GSs in the area. The consensus? They had no fucking clue. I finally walk over and inform the mother and son, yes you need the hard drive. They look relieved to get it and get out.

Another time was when I found Phoenix Wright used (back when it was rare.) I was checking to see if they had anything else I wanted for the B2G1 sale, and as I was doing so, the store manage told the obnoxious jerk employee that would wait on us to try and pressure customers into getting preorders, and do whatever it took. I was appalled because there were several customers inside the damn store still! SO we take the game up and as we try to check out, he continually tries to tell us about some game comin out and how we have to preorder it. After five minutes of insisting we don't want it, we threaten to take our business to the Best Buy down the road if they don't shut up. He does and we go on our way.

The last one was where I found the Guitar Hero controller marked for $10 used, before they raised the price. So we bring it up and he rings it up and says that'll be $25. At this point we're goin "WTF?" and tell him that it's marked as $10, so state laws requires he sell it to us at its marked price (and this is true.) He goes on and on about how it's what the system says it is and they have to sell it for that. AT this point we're arguing and trying to explain why you can't do that (marking something as $5 and charging $50) but he won't give in. A manager who's standing nearby turns and sees what's going on and apologizes, rings us up at the right price, and gives us no more trouble.

[davo1224]

Also about a year ago I went in to buy a DS game, I pick it off the shelf and go to pay for it and the manager tells me that I can't buy just one thing because he gets written up for every transaction that only has one item, I guess that want him to upsell other things. So he tells me I need to find something else so he convinces me me buy one of those cleaning clothes in the bag. That stuck me as odd, even if that have that order from management why would he tell a customer that.

Last story I promise I went and preordered castlevania for the DS the first day you could start preordering it. Not really a fan of the game but I really liked the preorder deal. So I go there the day it came in to pick up a copy. Tell them my name pay for it and he hands me the game, I ask him where my preorder is and he tell me that they didn't get enough of them and they had like 7 of them and I was number 8. So then I return the game, I wasn't going to pay full price for this game, I really just wanted to preorder, but I tell him that if someone doesn't pick it up call me and I will come in and buy the game to get the preorder. I go there tomorrow to pick up a different DS game and they same guy, the manager, tell me we found an extra preorder pack but I am not going to give it to you. Now I didn't care that they weren't going to let me have it but why did he have to tell me so, for all I knew they didn't have any more. He was going out of this way to be a jerk.


These two stories are CLASSIC examples of Gamestop. Their employees have major inferiority complexes and in some cases are extremely socially inept. I've heard so many of them talk to other customers and even speak to me as if I was a peasant.

[monkeydeew]

thank you gamestop manager, i love picking up preordered games that have been rezipped. you know the game is sold, yet you still open the box and probably rub your balls on it. third preordered game in a row i get this crap, i;m thinking of going straight to the dm this time just to mitch, boan, and waste their time.
http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/9223/picture030dt5.th.jpg (http://img353.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture030dt5.jpg)
http://img456.imageshack.us/img456/9251/picture031ch8.th.jpg (http://img456.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture031ch8.jpg)

[Mr Unoriginal]

thank you gamestop manager, i love picking up preordered games that have been rezipped. you know the game is sold, yet you still open the box and probably rub your balls on it. third preordered game in a row i get this crap, i;m thinking of going straight to the dm this time just to mitch, boan, and waste their time.
http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/9223/picture030dt5.th.jpg (http://img353.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture030dt5.jpg)
http://img456.imageshack.us/img456/9251/picture031ch8.th.jpg (http://img456.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture031ch8.jpg)

Some companies seal their games like this as a rule.

If you feel that someone's testicles have been on a game, maybe you should stop shopping there instead of giving them your patronage and then whining.

[monkeydeew]

Some companies seal their games like this as a rule.

If you feel that someone's testicles have been on a game, maybe you should stop shopping there instead of giving them your patronage and then whining.

SMB

[Rodimus]

I just read all your stories, and I gotta say I'm really glad I stopped going GS more fequently. Several of you mentioned the "little chats" they like to have with you about what systems you own and what games you should preorder. The clerks spend more time being annoying salesmen rather than paying attention to getting the sale complete. Which leads them to screw something up. I understand they're "trained" to do that, but I don't care. The last time I traded a couple old XBOX controllers he rung it up as if I wanted cash instead of credit. He made the mistake cause he wouldn't shut up about preorders, and he wasn't paying attention to what he was doing.

And not a complaint but just an observation: my wife is Japanese and everytime we go into a EB/GS the nerdy clerks behind the counter are constantly staring at her. It makes her feel very uncomfortable. A glance is fine, I can deal with that, but it's very creepy when they just stare. Twice I've caught them blantly staring and I just stare right back at them. They've stopped once they saw me and realize I know what they're doing.

[magiic]

After reading a lot of these I am glad I stopped shopping at EB last November

[Rodimus]

SMB

Super Mario Bros?
Super Monkey Ball?
Small Mouth Bass?
Simulated Moving Bed?

[magiic]

Super Mario Bros?
Super Monkey Ball?
Small Mouth Bass?
Simulated Moving Bed?

LOL @ Small Mouth Bass

[TheBlueWizard]

I went in one time and wanted to buy a DS game (the Star Wars one) and they only had the open one from the shelf. I told them I didn't want it and I walked out. That's it.

TBW

[monkeydeew]

super monkey balls

pic is mainly fyi

[the_deej]

My screw gamestop story happened about a year ago. I was looking through the ps1 games and there were about 5 copies of final fantasy 7, black label and GH. So I just picked up 1 copy for myself. When I brought it to the counter the guy asked me where i found it and I just said it was in the bin of games. He seemed reluctant to sell it to me... so as I was walking out, I saw him go and get all of the FF7s from the bin and a few other games and put them all behind the counter...

Nothing really bad to me, but I'm sure he just got all those games for himself...

[Unickuta]

Hey...even though we think the practice is pretty shitty as customers, I think that if we actually worked there we'd be gobbling up the "renting" new games thing...

I've never actually had any horrible experiences with Gamestop or EB, but there have been some recurrent funny ones. One of my favorites is when, at a GS in the mall, I bought the NCAA Football/To Spin Xbox game for $2, and as the GS clerk was checking me out(sounds wrong, yeah) he started droning on about random pre-orders for games that I had no interest in. The funny thing was that he was about six foot with red hair and a dumb face...so I end up standing there for about five minutes, acting interested, while he named the preorders I could make, probably about 100 in all. When I asked him what other games I could pre-order, his face lit up...haha

[davo1224]

You know how you stop talk of preorders? Only talk about Gamecube. I swear they'll treat you like a leper.

[Tsukento]

Here's another one. About a few months back, I went to one of the GameStops nearby after finding out they dropped the price on used copies of CE Final Fantasy XII. It was also when Game Boy micros dropped in price, so I figured "Why the hell not?" I picked out one of the used ones they had and was getting ready to pay for everything.

They couldn't find the AC adaptor for the micro. They had three micros behind their glass case and they couldn't find any adaptors. So they said they couldn't sell it to me. Bummer, no biggie although it is puzzling as to why they would even have them there if the adaptors aren't there. Sorta like how they have game cases for a game yet the game's no longer in stock. Whatever.

Couple of days back, I come in to grab Castlevania Double Pack...and they still have micros behind the glass case. Instead of sending them off or something, they still kept them there. As if they *want* to piss people off.

[dothog]

You know how you stop talk of preorders? Only talk about Gamecube. I swear they'll treat you like a leper.
This is the tip of the day. There's only one place--and one guy--near me who really turns the pre-order spiel up to 11, and next time I'm around him I'm going to give this one to him.

GS: Have you pre-ordered Halo 3 yet? If you don't, you won't be able to get a copy at release.
SELF: No, I haven't. I'll take one of those for the GC.
GS: I'm sorry, Halo 3 is exclusively available on the Xbox 360.
SELF: Is there anything I can pre-order for the GC? Anything? Because I really, really want to pre-order for the GC. Right now. Is Duke Nukem still coming out? Because I'll have 20 of those for the GC. And throw me in for the next Zelda and Mario Kart. ON THE GC.
GS: <head implodes>

It should at least slow him down, though I doubt it'll bring things to a halt.


And not a complaint but just an observation: my wife is Japanese and everytime we go into a EB/GS the nerdy clerks behind the counter are constantly staring at her. It makes her feel very uncomfortable. A glance is fine, I can deal with that, but it's very creepy when they just stare. Twice I've caught them blantly staring and I just stare right back at them. They've stopped once they saw me and realize I know what they're doing.
I'm starting at your wife right now. Undressing her with my eyes. Through the internets...

:drool:

Daddy like.

[Chacrana]

]
And not a complaint but just an observation: my wife is Japanese and everytime we go into a EB/GS the nerdy clerks behind the counter are constantly staring at her. It makes her feel very uncomfortable. A glance is fine, I can deal with that, but it's very creepy when they just stare. Twice I've caught them blantly staring and I just stare right back at them. They've stopped once they saw me and realize I know what they're doing.

Thinking back to those pictures of you in Japan and that crazy look you had in your eyes, that would likely be the scariest shit ever. EVER.

[LanceJr]

And not a complaint but just an observation: my wife is Japanese and everytime we go into a EB/GS the nerdy clerks behind the counter are constantly staring at her. It makes her feel very uncomfortable. A glance is fine, I can deal with that, but it's very creepy when they just stare. Twice I've caught them blantly staring and I just stare right back at them. They've stopped once they saw me and realize I know what they're doing.

Dude, tell them off. Why don't you grow a set and do something. Stop staring back at them and stick up for your wife. I agree that a quick peek is fine, I mean if you got a hot wife you expect people to notice and it's a compliment, but staring is rude and insulting.

[Rodimus]

Thinking back to those pictures of you in Japan and that crazy look you had in your eyes, that would likely be the scariest shit ever. EVER.

I get that same look when someone beats me in Pokemon.... :evil:

[Rodimus]

Dude, tell them off. Why don't you grow a set and do something. Stop staring back at them and stick up for your wife. I agree that a quick peek is fine, I mean if you got a hot wife you expect people to notice and it's a compliment, but staring is rude and insulting.

It really wasn't that big of a deal in the first place. Besides I accomplished my goal without saying a word. And sorry if I don't take advice from a guy with a TMNT avatar. Nothing personal, It's just a policy.

[LanceJr]

It really wasn't that big of a deal in the first place. Besides I accomplished my goal without saying a word. And sorry if I don't take advice from a guy with a TMNT avatar. Nothing personal, It's just a policy.

Oh, not a problem. Not everyone is perfect.

[Kuros]

Pics of said wife... so... I can see why they stare at her?

:p

[AlanSaysYo]

Yeah, I do that too. Seems like once in a while when I'm in the GS I go to, someone always picks up the used copy of Silent Hill 2 or 3(PS2). Then they realize the price and that's when I point out to them that SH 2 is $10 & SH3 is $12.99 at Game Crazy. I like to do that cause it saves the customer money.

There was another where I swear the employee was so pissed he was wanting to throw me out. It was right before they marked down all their PS1 for 75% off. A mom, dad & a kid walk in and look at the PS1 games, ask the employee if they had any racing games, of course they have no way to look it up. So off to the rack they went only to find stuff above $10, so I pointed out that Game Crazy carried PS1 games and to check there.

That employee gave me a "I swear to god, I'm going to fucking kill you"look cause he just lost the sale. But, hey, where your crap is overpriced, the store is only hurting itself.

Engaging in any activity remotely close to this is just wrong, and you should expect to get thrown out of the store for it. It's not your job to walk into a place of business and convince customers not to shop there. Gamestop may have some awful policies (and I personally never shop there), but you guys are just being jackasses when you intentionally divert business away from inside the store. You guys think you're freaking vigilantes or something? If you're going to play advocate for the consumer, don't do it on their own property. If I were a manager at one of those stores (God forbid), I'd do everything I could to have you arrested for loitering and soliciting.

I swear, I just don't understand how so many of you can criticize the place, but then tell stories about how you shop there. If you didn't shop there, they'd have fewer customers to make money from, and the whole thing would take care of itself. It's like some of you enjoy being treated like trash.

[SaraAB]

Because we know that gamestop's main clientele is soccer moms with kids and game-gift buyers so they have an infinite supply of customers, with those 2 groups around they will never be short of customers. Eliminating the hardcore gamer shopping base of gamestop would just be a minor percentage of the people who shop there and if we all went away then they would try to get away with even more crap with the customers. Its not like they would try to attract the hardcore gamers back to the store if we all went away, they don't want us as customers, they want soccer moms and gift buyers who can easily be taken for things like the game play guarantee, extended warranties, magazine subscriptions and preorders that they will easily forget about and the people that will trade back the games they buy there instead of going to ebay or amazon, or another game trading site like this one and getting rid of them that way.

[AlanSaysYo]

Putting aside the fact that no one has statistics on EB's shopper demographics and pretending that we know them is a waste of time, the question remains: why do some of you care that the soccer moms shop at EB? If you don't need to shop there and know where to find better deals, why doesn't it end there?

I'm sticking with the "enjoy being treated like trash" theory.

[Rodimus]

Putting aside the fact that no one has statistics on EB's shopper demographics and pretending that we know them is a waste of time, the question remains: why do some of you care that the soccer moms shop at EB? If you don't need to shop there and know where to find better deals, why doesn't it end there?

I'm sticking with the "enjoy being treated like trash" theory.

If you read some of the stories you'd know that most of us don't even shop their anymore. Once and awhile I'll look around but very rarely do I ever buy anything.

Also take into consideration that some people may not have an option, if they want a game the moment it comes out. I disagee with your theory.

[Scorch]

thank you gamestop manager, i love picking up preordered games that have been rezipped. you know the game is sold, yet you still open the box and probably rub your balls on it. third preordered game in a row i get this crap, i;m thinking of going straight to the dm this time just to mitch, boan, and waste their time.
http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/9223/picture030dt5.th.jpg (http://img353.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture030dt5.jpg)
http://img456.imageshack.us/img456/9251/picture031ch8.th.jpg (http://img456.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture031ch8.jpg)

You should see the seals on Spider-Man 3 for the Wii. They look horrendus.

[Demolition Man]

You should see the seals on Spider-Man 3 for the Wii. They look horrendus.

Its a perfect match for that game tho. ;)

[Tsukento]

Pics for said seals?

As Rodimus mentioned, some people don't have any other choice. I'm stuck on the far south east of the US, where the ONLY game retailer is GameStop. No hopes of any mom & pop stores here either. Personally, I wouldn't see any problem with having someone point out to me that there's a store with cheaper prices. Sure, the employees are gonna get pissed, but hey. Their loss for such shitty business to begin with.

[jer7583]

So I went to one I'd never been in today, to get rid of some junk the ebay suckers didn't even want, while that "deal" is still going on. It was like a laundry list of terrible GameStop policies.

1. Jacked up shelves with things out of place everywhere and on the floor.
2. What appeared to be a 12 year old working the register asking me for my trades (which I admittedly had, but wanted to look first)
3. Numerous NEW games with the generic used inserts/cases. (this really pisses me off, they sell them disc only, new price, without any case or manual)
4. Didn't have anything worthwhile in stock.
5. $5 DS tax applied to Planet Puzzle League, my intended purchase.
6. My actual purchase, a new copy of Crush, was sold to me opened, because they refused to sell any of the sealed copies, because it's their policy, and "it's never been played"
7. Asked to pre-order because "halo 3 will sell out quickly"
8. Offered $4 for Lego Star Wars 2 ( I kept it)

Just horrible.

And on top of that, while I was in there, people were just making stupid decisions left and right! A guy was asking for an Xbox 360 elite (borderline ripoff) and another customer straight up purchased Tenchu Z for $64 cash, while the cashiers plugged him for pre-orders that he caved in on.

Gaming retail makes me sick. I do really enjoy Crush and Loco Roco, though, which I got for about nothing after dumping some unsellable stuff.

[refusedchaos]

yea i rememeber one EB sold me a "new copy" of Digital Devil Saga 2..it had that homemade seal but i figured it was ok..when i got home there was a sticker on the manuel, disc had sum scratches and the bonus soundrack was missing...never bought from there agian

[IAmTheCheapestGamer]

Engaging in any activity remotely close to this is just wrong, and you should expect to get thrown out of the store for it. It's not your job to walk into a place of business and convince customers not to shop there. Gamestop may have some awful policies (and I personally never shop there), but you guys are just being jackasses when you intentionally divert business away from inside the store. You guys think you're freaking vigilantes or something? If you're going to play advocate for the consumer, don't do it on their own property. If I were a manager at one of those stores (God forbid), I'd do everything I could to have you arrested for loitering and soliciting.

I swear, I just don't understand how so many of you can criticize the place, but then tell stories about how you shop there. If you didn't shop there, they'd have fewer customers to make money from, and the whole thing would take care of itself. It's like some of you enjoy being treated like trash.

Actually, I only ever buy anything from them when it's a game that I meant to buy at normal retail once it hit a good clearance price, but I waited too long and all the stores sold out of it. Stuff like The Thing(xbox) and some other titles that I only bought from them for the above mentioned reason.

I have done all that the other CAGs who mentioned telling people about cheaper prices elsewhere and more to try and tell them in some small way to be truly educated consumers and know that you DON'T have to pay full retail for items EVER.

Discounted prices+the ability to buy more games at a better price= happy consumers

Well, unless you're talking bout the common GS customers people have mentioned already(the 'gotta have it now crowd and the soccer moms with spoiled brat whiney kids). They will just buy stuff without giving two craps because they 'have to have it NOW' or to shut up their whiney kids.

Me, I can wait......

[jer7583]

$34.99 DS games make me want to roid out and spinning piledriver the entire staff

[monkeydeew]

how about 70$ for two resealed ds games that were preordered, while the buy 2 get 1 free deal was still going on

[kingsoby1]

I went to a GS right at closing... they decided to close early, but all I wanted was directions somewhere due to not being familiar with the area. The dude kept saying they're closed and to go away, even though he heard that I only wanted directions.

[Rozz]

how about 70$ for two resealed ds games that were preordered, while the buy 2 get 1 free deal was still going on

Some DS games are sealed like that I believe. The only way to check for sure if yours is resealed is if the contents inside look used. I bought Paper Mario 2 new there a few years ago and it was resealed because it had a Gamestop stick on the actual case underneath the plastic, but the game was mint so I didnt care. It's too bad most display copies have scratches, finger prints, and the caes are sometimes even broken. Once I refused a display copy and the guy was like "are you sure?" then he rolled his eyes and said "whatever".

At EBGames they used to tell people when they were getting an open product but now it seems like they just simply give it to them without informing them that it's opened.

[jer7583]

Yeah, DS games are sometimes shipped with that cheap resealed plastic. Especially 3rd party games. You'll see it at best buy even. It usually is a little bit harder and higher quality than the cheap stuff EB uses to reseal.

EBSTOP? fuck EM

[thesilentshadow30]

I was at the Lancaster, Ohio Gamestop this weekend, they recently changed the store name to Gamestop from EBgames. This has always been the worst store I have gone to because the floor is just filled with so much crap that there is no room to walk. I was once there during christmas season and the store literally was FULL, there was no visible way into the store. All you could see was people. Well they still haven't changed the floor layout, with the "gamedays" sale going they have even more floor space being used for their displays. This time the store wasn't busy so I could actually get inside. Well alot of the customers were asking the clerk what happened, why is it a Gamestop now. This is what got funny. The clerk didn't know or have a clue but started explaining what happened in his own mind.... "Well both companies (EB & Gamestop) were competing for the same buisness and each had a good market share of the game business, they got together and decided to merge so that as one company they would do even better and not compete with each other. It was a good idea because now they have a bigger market share of the business" ... Ok at this point I just left. They didn't decide to get together, Gamestop BOUGHT EB....

[hiyruu]

My overall worst experience happened about a year or two ago.

I went in to the GameStop looking for a copy of Klonoa 2. I found it, used, priced $14.99. This seemed like a good deal at the time to me, as the only copies I found on eBay were upwards of $30-40. When I take it to the register, they scan it. The cashier says "Sorry, this game isn't in our system." I glance at the screen on the table-thinger, and it does come up. For $10.
I still figure the employee wanted it himself. Needless to say, I left the store furious and never went back.

[davo1224]

The majority of Gamestop employees I've encountered (minus about two or three total) are HORRIBLE liars and usually have no tact. I sometimes wonder where they think they are or who they're talking to.

[Dark Slayer120]

I was at the Lancaster, Ohio Gamestop this weekend, they recently changed the store name to Gamestop from EBgames. This has always been the worst store I have gone to because the floor is just filled with so much crap that there is no room to walk. I was once there during christmas season and the store literally was FULL, there was no visible way into the store. All you could see was people. Well they still haven't changed the floor layout, with the "gamedays" sale going they have even more floor space being used for their displays. This time the store wasn't busy so I could actually get inside. Well alot of the customers were asking the clerk what happened, why is it a Gamestop now. This is what got funny. The clerk didn't know or have a clue but started explaining what happened in his own mind.... "Well both companies (EB & Gamestop) were competing for the same buisness and each had a good market share of the game business, they got together and decided to merge so that as one company they would do even better and not compete with each other. It was a good idea because now they have a bigger market share of the business" ... Ok at this point I just left. They didn't decide to get together, Gamestop BOUGHT EB....

Wait... you mean the Gamestop inside the mall in Lancaster? If so that is where my story is from. Pretty cool someone else hates that place too lol that has been there.

[jer7583]

I went into mine looking for copies of lumines to ebay, and some dumbass kid with a sideways flat brim cap had just bought a $600 PS3, as well as $60 copies of Spider Man 3 and MLB 2k7.

What a douche. Almost $800 of crap. And he walked out of there without any component or HDMI cables, so you know he was rockin that PS3 on a 20 inch low def TV.

[monkeydeew]

is there a list of of gs's with DICK managers?

[auralia]

once at game stop when mario party 5 i believe came out (first one w/ the mic) i picked it up day after release the box was open but you know their crap about open boxes... i bought it any way... i forgot to check it before i left the mall... i get home open it up and the mic is there but instead of mp 5 in the case it is the HULK... so i had to hall my arse all the way back to the mall (15 min drive but 20 min to find a spot to park) and their resolution was to give me a resident evil 4 demo disk as though that made up for their increadable assness. I can't remember the last time i bought anything from GS or EB and I can't imagine me buying anything again unless it is something to sell on ebay or trade fodder (and that's a darn rare find now adays).

[Slate]

I was going to pick up a Halo 2 poster, And the guy said "We can't let you have it because the game isn't out yet" But the manager left a NOTE in the back saying that I could have it. That guy got fired soon after that. (He was bad for sales, I didn't get him fired for not giving me the poster)

[monkeydeew]

the only time i have bad experiences is with DICK employees that recognize me as not some trick they can milk preorders out of

[SaraAB]

But the employee purges that seem to be happening all over now make it impossible to establish a relationship with a particular store in the chain, something which was very easy to do pre EBstop days. Even the managers get shuffled so now its impossible to even come close to establishing a relationship with a store, which is probably what gamestop wants, to drive the hardcore gamers further and further away from their stores. Remember folks if you work at GS you will be randomly fired and then left without a job..