game crazy vs gamestop vs eb

[xrickyb86x]

i had this discussion with my friend who's boyfriend works at gamestop. we both agreed that eb games customer service and knowledge of their products is fucking horrible. then gamestop is pretty damn bad too. then we both agreed that game crazy is the best. this is all in our area of san diego though. i dont want to sound like im biased because i work at a game crazy. i made this decision long before i worked there. for the last two years or so almost 100% of my purchases have been at a game crazy near me (unless another store has a rare game or a cool deal) because of the fact that the employees pretty much know what they're talking about and are nice in general.

any ebgames in my area is fucking horrible. they are assholes and know almost nothing about video games.

gamestop around here is alright. it's usually just 2 of the 4 in my city that i have problems at.

ive been to tons of game crazy's especially when they have these killer deals from time to time. every employee at every GC is very friendly to me and knows exactly what i am talking about.

im just wondering if it's the same for people in other areas. sorry i didn't include gamerush but i don't have one near me at all. i wish i did. i hear good things about them too.

[Radioactive_Man]

All 3 Game Crazy's around my area have the stupidest staff.
EB games has cool ass people.
Gamestop has half and half.

[xrickyb86x]

i've basically just stop doing business all together with eb b&m. but ebgames.com is pretty solid with those coupon codes. i posted this in another thread but here's a convo i had with an employee at an ebgames in my area...

me - "do you guys have anymore dreamcast games?"

him - "it comes out next week."

me - "wait. what comes out next week?"

him - "yeah next week."

yeah... that made me decide to never do any shopping at ebgames ever again.

and a quick gamestop story...

me and two of my friends walk in, all males, and we're greeted by the gamestop employee saying "what's up ladies?" so we look over and i at least expect a little laugh from him or a quick smile or just something to let me know he was joking and not really trying to be a dick. he just stared us down and made me want to punch him in his stupid face.

[argyle]

In my area:

Knowledge - Rhino & EB > Gamestop
Customer Service - Rhino & EB > Gamestop
Deals - Rhino > EB & Gamestop
Selection - EB > Gamestop > Rhino

I know the managers at Rhino & EB (I'm referring to the one EB I do all my shopping at). Every time I go to those stores I get into conversations with them, and not always about games. They're just really cool people. Plus, you can tell they're actually gamers - they will discuss the latest releases or upcoming systems and you can tell they have a genuine interest beyond "preorder, preorder, preorder". Heck, the manager at my EB goes out of his way to play the budget/lesser known games so he can recommend those to people.

The 2-for-1 deal at Rhino absolutely can't be beat, but unfortunately they have the worst selection of the three. If they get a new game in I want, I'll use credit to buy it even if I know I won't play it immediately, because they very likely will never restock the game once they've sold out. They do have a nice used selection, but those are ususally in pretty rough shape.

My local Gamestop pretty much only hires dicks. Their selection is OK, but dealing with the people makes me never want to go there. Pretty much the only draw for that store to me is their DVD selection.

[yukine]

I would say Gamestop has the better customer service. I've been going to Gamestop for a couple of years now without any hassle. I have, however, encountered quite a few incompetent employees working at Gamecrazy stores.

[Puffa469]

I would imagine if this thread gets big enough there would be 1/3 of the people for each store, cos opinions will vary wildly depending on where you are.

Since Im fairly knowledgeable about my games, the knowledge of product and attitude of a stores employees is not a huge concern of mine. As long as they are not outright rude to me, Im far more concerned with the selection of product in the store.

In my experiences at my local stores, I find that Gamestop has knowledgable employees, but their prices and selection leave something to be desired. EB has a better selection, but their employees dont know shit about what theyre selling, but they are very nice, and will do all my crazy returns from the website with no problems. And Gamecrazy has employees that seem to love games, they might not be that knowledgable, but they are sincere and friendly. I only shop at Gamecrazy when they have sales tho...

With all that said, its foolish to think that an employee of any GS, EB, or GC will be some sort of videogame historian. Most of these kids are teens, or college age, and I dont expect them to know about NES games, or even PS1 games. Your not gonna get the curator of the videogames hall of fame when your paying $7 an hour. Your gonna get a kid who needs a job and nothing more. If he/she at least knows about new releases and upcoming games for current systems then thats good enough for me.

[RedvsBlue]

In my area there's one of each and here's the breakdown:
Customer Service-Gamestop
Prices-Gamecrazy (but horrible customer service, usually not even worth it)
Selection-EBgames

[schuerm26]

Gamecrazy has absolutlely brutal customer service. It is the worst of any store i have ever been to (not just video games). For some reason they can't get my damn MVP card into their system so EVERYTIME i go in to a diff. store they have to call Customer Service or put it on the corporate account (or something like that) and i end up waiting half an hour. It sucks going in there but they have good prices so im forced to.

Has anyone else had problems getting their MVP card to work everytime?

[Warner1281]

Being from the San Diego area as well, I pretty much have to agree with you. I've been to every single EB, GS, and GC North of I-8 all the way up to Temecula, and I go to most on a regular basis. Of the 4 GC's I go to, all the employee's are knowledgable and friendly (especially the one in Temecula), but the employee's in the one right by the stadium has a bunch of asshats working for them (another story for another day). GS's are usually fairly decent. The employees usually just seem like they've been there for too long and so they're more like drones than anything else. And EB... well, I only go there when I need to, except for one location I really like in Oceanside.

[Chrono72090]

We have no Gamecrazys in North West Florida :/

But we have a babbages, a gamestop, and two EB's..

I'd say people and gamestop / EB are cool, but the guys who work a babbages don't know all the much about games and are always being stupid. But lately, I've found a good selection of games at Gamestop / babbages like:
Disgaea
Vagrant Story
Makai Kingdom
Breath of Fire IV
Magna Carta
Gitaroo Man
Shining Tears
Lunar: SSS
Rhaphsody

Surprising, yes. I picked up Makai, Disgaea and BoF IV on monday.

[djkunai]

GameCrazy doesn't put stickers on their games that never peel off.

[RedvsBlue]

GameCrazy doesn't put stickers on their games that never peel off.

Actually the newer stickers at Gamestop come off really easily. Now if you buy a game that's been on the shelf for a while and was stickered with the old stickers then all bets are off but at least these stores are starting to realize how annoying their stickers are.

[Chacrana]

Gamecrazy is definitely the best. From my experience, their employees aren't fucking retards and I haven't been hassled with various subscriptions and other garbage yet. Plus, they let you special order games which automatically makes them the best by a mile.

[xrickyb86x]

Being from the San Diego area as well, I pretty much have to agree with you. I've been to every single EB, GS, and GC North of I-8 all the way up to Temecula, and I go to most on a regular basis. Of the 4 GC's I go to, all the employee's are knowledgable and friendly (especially the one in Temecula), but the employee's in the one right by the stadium has a bunch of asshats working for them (another story for another day). GS's are usually fairly decent. The employees usually just seem like they've been there for too long and so they're more like drones than anything else. And EB... well, I only go there when I need to, except for one location I really like in Oceanside.

bahahahah thats the one i work at. chances are you ran into my manager. he can be pretty mean sometimes. also, chances are i wasn't working vause im just a part timer with enough hours to get by.

[levi333]

Gamecrazy. GS and EB rarely have anything i want.
GC also has the best employees IMO.

[jer7583]

good to hear so many good things about gamecrazy. (I'm an employee)

[djkunai]

good to hear so many good things about gamecrazy. (I'm an employee)

Did you work inventory tonight?

[nosuchsoul]

I think people assume Gamestop has excellent customer service becuase the bastards in corporate land always secret shop the stores. So we have to be nice.

However, I do know my stuff, but I lost count how many tiems I have told a person "I don't play video games" because they came in five minutes before we closed and I had to get rid of them. Also, do not go there right when we open becuase we have stuff to do right when we open, you know put signs out and stuff.

I cannot just tell them a game sucks becuase if I do, they will assume I know games and can tell them what is good. Which IS what I do not want. I want them to leave, lol.

I also once asked a kid who was hassling me if he wanted to reserve Bonestorm. I swear. Kid believed me too......

I am a bad employee.

[.JPG]

It all depends on your area, in my opinion Game Crazy is equally ok. The EB Games rocks! The Gamestop is...well ok I guess.

So really that's how it all works. Sometimes you'll get lucky with some places, and other's will be crappy, you just never know.

[asianxcore]

I've only been to about 3 Gamecrazy's in various areas of Northern California, and almost everyone there has been really friendly. I've also got some really great deals there. There has only been 1 employee that I ran into that was not only rude to my friend and I, but was being really rude to this little kid who was playing the display Nintendo DS.

[xrickyb86x]

yeah i know it varies from city to city. that's why i asked. im just curious.

i seriously hate when people are mean to little kids at game stores. half the time those kids think you're the shit because you work at a video game store. it just bums me out. we were all little annoying kids at one point. humor them.

[TexTuna]

While I buy more at GS simply because there are more of them around me (try like 100-150) and so they have a broader selection, there is no comparison in my area - Game Crazy is by far the best.

1) They maintain a list of what I want
2) They don't charge me extra for things on that list when they come in
3) They know me by name
4) They regularly set things aside for me without me even asking
5) To top it all off generally their prices are SIGNIFICANTLY bellow that of GS/EB. Often times by half or more.
6) They offer better trade value then GS/EB - not as much as BB/GR usually but a few dollars more than GS/EB.
7) At least at the stores around me the salespeople are all gamers and no their stuff but that is also generally the case at the GS/EB's around me too.

TexTuna