Definitely hard to choose one since they're all so common (except the one about loving GS). I hate having preorders crammed down my throat, or hearing them cramming preorders down other customers' throats. When I walk in, I know ahead of time if I want to get something, and I tell them that Amazon usually gets my gaming $$. They think some DLC skin is going to make me give them preorder money when Amazon has $10 or $20 credits for buying the same thing? I'll BUY the DLC from some other poor sap who used your store and STILL have credit to burn, thank you very much.

Never experienced the opened preorder game, guess our GS keeps them all sealed behind the counter until the customer gets it. I just picked up fire emblem and I was the only preorder for the store, and I got a sealed one. Since it was a single copy, and the store only received one copy I would have expected them to gut this preorder and they did not.

I would say smelly customers would be my #1 annoyance with them but I haven't experienced that in a while, I usually go when almost no one is in the store. But otherwise the stores are small and one smelly customer just makes the whole store reek if you know what I mean. Other than Christmas and big launches like CoD GS doesn't seem to be getting too much traffic. Most of the customers around here don't seem to be the browsing type and seem to be the type that knows what they want or has a specific purpose at the store.

The suggestions I have gotten to preorder are merely suggestions and usually are relevant to what I am purchasing that day so I have no problem with that. The suggestions do not feel invasive at all and they stop after you say no once. If someone was trying to push the latest Madden on me when I am trying to buy a copy of Rune Factory then I would have a problem with it.

The gutted game thing I just expect these days, that does not mean I will buy a gutted new game. 99% of the games I buy at GS are preorders or used games, not older new games that have been sitting on the shelf for a long time.

Originally Posted by lude21 The employees!!!

I think this is mostly management's fault. I know a few folks who work there, and they have some stories about what goes on, pretty ridiculous stuff.

Plus, I think they are worse than starbucks with store locations. Went to one mall in VA where they had two stores not even 100 feet from each other, inside a mall. Maybe it's leftover from the Babbages days or EBGames merger, but still.

Gutted new games. The last gutted game I got from them was LBP GOTY I paid $59.99 + sales tax and there was no plastic wrapping on the game and a GS sticker on the case. I watched them pull the disc from a paper sleeve from the drawer by the register. They been pulling this crap with me for years (since I'm a kid) at different gamestops in FL.

The sad part about this was that I turned down the game at first and went to the nearest gamestop to get a sealed copy. They sent me there saying they had a copy. When I got there they told me they sold it. So i had to go back to the original gamestop and settle for the gutted copy and the girl emplyoee laughed at me then debated with me why they gut the games and she said because they get stolen. Yada yada kiss my ass. I only bought the game because I had someone I wanted to play the game with.

Now I only shop there for extreme deals or exclusive content.

Gutted new games, especially when they are supposed to have a preorder bonus inside and it is not there. Been a long time since I ran into that though.

Mainly now its a crappy stock and doesn't seem like my local ones even try to keep things in any particular order. I pretty much stopped going anymore unless its a good sale.

Only Problem I have with them is that all there used games are disc only. Out of 10 games I bought Only one was complete.

walked into halifax gamestop or eb whatever, one in mic mac mall, i get a copy of black ops , its all scratched to hell and dirty, im like can i get a better looking one, hes like, looking at it like nothing is wrong, hes looking at me. im just like i dont want to come back later with this game not working. he kinda wouldnt, and the red head behind the counter got a better copy for me in all that time he wasted. he was such a dickweed.

Originally Posted by Daw19yoyo Just want to mention, those controllers are worth a lot now XD. Also I don't really mind anything from the list except selling used as new. The rest of the stuff is part of their jobs, so what ever. I truthfully really want to work their to get experiance in the video game retail industry.

hey it may be worth something now, but its still ugly and non-functional

the whole gutted thing because people steal games is bullshit. heres an idea- just have a "dummy"case on the shelf, cutomer brings it up and you give them a sealed game. replace "dummy" case back on shelf, rinse and repeat.

That store(all of it) annoys me. So I don't shop there anymore. I trade out to vg five I buy new at best buy. It's the same price and I get rewards points. I buy Clarence At target. No need to shop at a horrible store.

On a side note. Those gutted "new" games are taken home with employees and played. I've even seen people buy a game play it for a week and bring it back and the employees still sell it as new. No thanks.

Horrible service
Horrible corporate policies
Horrible trade in value
Horrible prices.

Why do people contuine to shop with them? Other stores sell video games guys.

I only go there if I have a bunch of old games to trade in that wont fetch me anything on ebay or here. Like today, I had a bunch of old games that I beat a few times and are just collecting dust.

The kid got all whiny with me because he had to stock the shelves and I had 9 games to trade in so he made some comment like oh of course you need to come in now. Then he commented on every game what he did or didnt like on it, instead of just scanning them and getting on with it. Seriously, you were whining about how much you didnt want me to trade these in, now you wont shutup about the games!

Either way I got $46 put down on metal gear revengence for the ps3 so im happy. Oh, the kid almost threw a fit when I told him I didnt want to preorder GTA 5 or bioshock infinite.

He also tried to make fun of me for having a full time job and not going to the midnight release for metal gear monday night. Seriously kid? You hair is down to your ass, you have a giant boil on your forehead, and your hair is slicker than a mechanics hand, and your going to make fun of me for not going to a midnight release for a video game? Ugh, I wanted so bad to report this kid for being such a deuche-rocket, but in this economy I dont want any to lose their source of income. God bless the world if this character ever has kids.

Mostly just the fact that they will sell opened, and in one case of mine scratched up games as "new" copies. I also usually end up dealing with rude, annoyed looking and sometimes condescending employees. Not that I ask them for anything special, they just generally act that way.

Originally Posted by SaraAB I would say smelly customers would be my #1 annoyance with them

Oh yes, I forgot about that. I picked up Battlestations Pacific (only place I could find it semi cheap) a few months ago. There was this flippping 300 lb 20 year old kid in there with baby blue spandex on and a leather jacket. He was in front of me buying and talking with the guy working (mustve been friends) because when it was my turn to check out. He stood directly next to me talking to the cashier and to me about battlestations asking all about it. I mean, the kid was very nice, and I actually got him to buy the 2nd copy they had left, but man did he stink. Plus he was so close I could just feel his hot stanky cheezeit breath on my cheek.

What I'm going to say will sound like insanity to some of you, but as an employee of the GameStop, I hate used conversion. While it's great to get a lower price on some of the games, they almost always end up gutted when converted to used and it takes away the chance of finding that sealed gem lying around somewhere.

Working at other retail stores in the past, it was possible to come across a sealed copy of an old game that was completely out of print. So as a collector, that kinda bums me out.

The kid got all whiny with me because he had to stock the shelves and I had 9 games to trade in so he made some comment like oh of course you need to come in now. Then he commented on every game what he did or didnt like on it, instead of just scanning them and getting on with it. Seriously, you were whining about how much you didnt want me to trade these in, now you wont shutup about the games!

the same thing happen to me, a few days ago when i went to gamestop to look for a game. The guy was literally sitting on the floor stocking the shelves. WHen i asked him about the availability of a game. he did not even look back, and go check, just flat to me no, the store that does have it. I just left, and went to another gamestop a few blocks away.

I used to work at gamestop about 8 years ago, and I can attest that the store has gone to shit. I got hired for xmas but then they kept me on and I eventually became a third key (kinda like a manager). Anyway, I worked one night a week and all day Sundays (and got to hand pick my own crew, which was awesome btw). There were 3 of us (sometimes 4 on holiday weekends) and I ran that store to perfection. We had the best Sunday numbers because we were all personable, and people even told us that they only came in on Sundays because we worked there. I ran a tight ship too. We had one register strictly for cash only, and one for just CC. Kept the store flowing. I would let my guys work the registers while I helped people. My manager was a pretty good guy too. He allowed me to vary trade in prices to a point that helped customers (example, I would add a few bucks here or there to a trade in for someone who wanted to trade in a few games for one new title).
I think the biggest thing that actually hurt Gamestop was when the bought out EB Games. We had an EB games in our mall and people always preferred us over them. The only time they went to EB was to buy PC games since we didn't sell them. But when they got bought out, everything started to change, for the worse.

In the 2 years I worked as a manager, we had 1 customer complaint, and it wasn't even our fault. Some punk kid and his dumbass father come in and demand a refund on GTA cause the kid was 13 and he bought it without his dad's permission. I told him we can't return open games but I would call my manager to see what we could do. So I take a look a the receipt, and #1 he bought the game in PA, not our store and #2 he had it for 3 months. I looked at him, and I flat out told him "Call the store on the receipt, we can't do anything for you". He starts cursing at me and wants my DM phone number, I just laughed at him, said "here's his number, good luck" and he stormed out. Few days later my manager call me in and said "that guy called the DM, and the DM told him too bad... it was hysterical..."

We had another lady complain that she bought a PC game from us and we never put the game in the box. To bad we don't sell PC games at our store. We argued on the phone for like 10 minutes before I just hung up on her.

The "new" games, opened is not new....

also this relates to why, I do not buy anything new, unless I preordered it at gamestop HERE

yeah he got slidecaged

Edit: Fixed linkage

Pretty much all they above.

But pushing pre-orders, warranties etc. is probably the worst part as I just want to pay and leave. So I avoid stores that make their employees push things like that at the register.

But poor service, cramped crowded stores that are often full of kids (especially mall stores) is right up there. So I pretty much never go to Gamestop and just buy my games from Amazon or occasionally Target or Best Buy.

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The GS store here that is not in a shopping plaza or in a mall so in at least a year I haven't seen any children in there, teenagers come in but they are with parents. I don't think the employees at this store would tolerate unsupervised children either. It seems to be mostly gamers who know what they want when they come in and they pay and leave. The only problem with this store is its kind of like a convenience store in terms of safety, last year it had the window busted and tons of merchandise stolen out of it so I have to be careful, I know its being paranoid but I wouldn't go in alone.

I don't complain about this much but the huge strollers parents bring in to GS can be annoying since the stores are small the stroller can be taking up half the store and blocking half the selection of games.

They do seem to have at least 2 employees on staff at all times though now, several years ago there would be shifts where they had only one employee, which is quite dangerous for this type of store.

You guys who complain about the pushing of the pre-orders complain too much. It's a simple yes or no. Not much different then when you're in a fast food chain and the employees are forced to ask you to upgrade the size of your drink or frys.

The big deal is opening games up from the manufacturer then selling them as new still. Which brought them a class action law suit.

I'd like to change my poll to all of the above. I hate pushy salesman, salesman that don't know videogames, salesman that want to tell me every game is a "great game". It was Banjo-Kazooie Nuts and Bolts... IT'S NOT A GREAT GAME!!!