An Employee Story

Inferno-X

Inferno-X

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I headed to the mall tonight because there were a couple of games I wanted to pickup. I got to Gamestop at around 8pm, they close at 9pm. It's a weekday, not busy at all. There are two employees working and three people in the store (one dude bs'ing with one employee, a mom and kid looking at GBA games, and myself).

I browse some PS2 games, spot a game I've been interested in (Choro-Q), and start reading the back. Someone calls the store and the employee who isn't shooting the breeze with someone answers the phone. The caller was wondering the trade-in value on some games and the employee says to bring them in and they'll scan them then. From what I could tell, the caller put in on the employee a little, still asking for a price. The employee then says: "I'm a little busy right now. I'm here all alone and I have two people waiting in line right now. You'll have to call back later.". They hung up shortly later and the employee went back to aimlessly walking around the store doing nothing at all. The store was dead as could be. After hearing that exchange I left the store ticked off and didn't buy the game. I wound up getting something at the EB instead.

I just wanted to share that little story. I don't know the deal with giving out trade-in prices over the phone, but if you can't say you can't. If you are too lazy, don't flat out lie to someone about it. You just may cost your store a sale. :bomb:
 
... Some stores refuse to give quotes over the phone. Simple as that. Prices change. People lie about the condition of there games. Plus, if they give prices over the phone, chances are the person will not trade them in. By making someone come into the store they are more likley to trade them in as they 'traveled all this way'.

Im not going to say this happens everywhere, but it does. I refuse to spend 20 minutes on the phone with someone giving quotes when they most likley will never come in. Its simply a waste of time.
 
Wow. You're.. overly sensitive or something, if that caused you to leave the store.. you shouldn't of left.

You should've stacked a ton of games on the counter then left when he went to the back to get them all.
 
[quote name='Scorch']
You should've stacked a ton of games on the counter then left when he went to the back to get them all.[/QUOTE]


Yes, random games for random systems... That is the way to fuck them over. They'll be busy for hours, since they'll have to put them back too.
 
[quote name='Scorch']Wow. You're.. overly sensitive or something, if that caused you to leave the store.. you shouldn't of left.

You should've stacked a ton of games on the counter then left when he went to the back to get them all.[/QUOTE]
:lol:
 
You're not supposed to tell people on the phone more than 3 Trade-in values for a game.

Just because, they probably won't come in then, it makes perfect sense.

It's not a big deal ever, would you want to be tied up on a phone telling people the trade-in values for 20 games? I've had people that wanted that, and that's absurd, just head in.
 
I don't think OP had a problem with not giving the values, he had a problem with the fact that the employee lied about why he wouldn't give them.
 
[quote name='bmsdaddy']he had a problem with the fact that the employee lied about why he wouldn't give them.[/QUOTE]

No store clerk is going to readily admit "I'm sorry, but I'm too lazy to look up your trade-in values for you. I'd rather continue screwing around than help you." Of course, he lied about why he wouldn't help. Imagine how upset the OP would have been had he told the truth. :D
 
[quote name='Scorch']You should've stacked a ton of games on the counter then left when he went to the back to get them all.[/QUOTE]

:applause: fucking Awesome Idea. ^_^
 
To be honest though, wouldnt you prefer to know the prices you will get at various stores before you decide where to trade them in for the most?
I can see it from both sides and while it would suck to give out tons of prices over the phone to someone who might not ever come in, as a CAG I would like to know where to drive to to get the best prices.
It beats driving around town with limited time in crappy traffic with expensive gas trying to find a good deal.

I agree with the OP though, that lying over the phone is tacky. It makes you wonder what else they lie about to get the caller off the line.
 
You mean people don't always tell the truth!?!

But mommy said to always tell the truth!!! Do these... these freakshows not listen to their mommies?!!?!
 
[quote name='Noodle Pirate!']I agree with the OP though, that lying over the phone is tacky. It makes you wonder what else they lie about to get the caller off the line.[/QUOTE]

i agree with you and the op on this one. it's not the fact that the employee did not give the quote, it's the fact that he lied. i've had many store employees tell me that they cannot give me a quote over the phone. i take their words at face value. however, if i caught them lying, all of their credibility goes down the drain. you'll never know if they're lying to get you to trade in your games, to preorder a crappy title, etc....:roll:
 
While I see the OP's point, I see the point everyone is making about not giving out quotes over the phone for a variety of reasons.

It kind of sounds like when a company has a known glitch with some product. A customer asks a CSR about it, and the CSR can't readily admit it since they could theoretically lose their job about admitting a problem, and instead just say "This is the first time I've heard of that issue."

At least, thats what I did when I was a CSR. Within 10 seconds of the person describing the problem, I knew it was a manufacturing error, but still had to say that I'd never heard of it before. And then proceed to tell them they'd need to send in the machine for repairs....and then listen to them bitch....and it sort of gets stupidily hazy at this point.
 
[quote name='Inferno-X']
I just wanted to share that little story. I don't know the deal with giving out trade-in prices over the phone, but if you can't say you can't. If you are too lazy, don't flat out lie to someone about it. You just may cost your store a sale. :bomb:[/QUOTE]

I don't think you had to get upset over somebody "white lying" their way out of a phone conversation. If you've ever worked in retail, customers and phone calls can be annoying -- especially calls from gamers. It's no secret that some gamers are a bit eccentric to state it nicely. I've been in game stores and witnessed some of the most annoying and irritating customers in there just blabbing aimlessly with the employees, and being the professionals that they are expected to be, they sit (stand) there and nod their head and are polite. I know that in their minds they would just love to slug the person in the head or tell them to go home, because that's what I'm thinking while I'm a witness while window shopping.

Cut the guy some slack. Retail isn't the most glamorous job. It's was at the end of the day, the guy is probably ready to go home, and doesn't really want to deal with somebody asking about the trade-in on some probably obscure title that isn't worth more than a couple of dollars at most.
 
(rant)

Hmm.. um. It may have been mentioned but:

A) Gamestop and EBGames employees are not allowed to give prices over the phone.

B) The telephone is simply a convenience that allows people to ask simple purchase questions, however according to company policy telephone calls are always placed behind the needs of the immediate in-store customer.

C) Gamestop and EB ARE NOT PHONE-CENTERED BUSINESSES. THEY ARE RETAIL STORE LOCATIONS. If someone can't get off of their lazy ass and drive some games down to a store to trade them in, they don't deserve to get prices over the phone.

Yeah, managed an EB for two years.

(/rant)
 
[quote name='Inferno-X'] I wound up getting something at the EB instead.

[/QUOTE]


Gamestop still got your money though since they are now the same company.
 
We're not supposed to give quotes to customers over the phone in my district. I've actually had to use this lie before when a customer decides starts yelling "WHY NOT?" and I can tell that I'm about to listen to about 30 minutes of screaming (provided I don't hang up earlier). Some people might just straight out lie cuz they don't feel like having the customer at the other end freak out.
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']Yes, random games for random systems... That is the way to fuck them over. They'll be busy for hours, since they'll have to put them back too.[/QUOTE]
I have always wondered why it takes these people so long to put games away? I was in a GS a few days ago and one of the workers was training someone in and there was 2 stacks of 10 games that needed to be put away. The guy doing the training was saying how "decieving" the stack looked because it would take well over a hour to put them away.
 
[quote name='valor19']Gamestop still got your money though since they are now the same company.[/QUOTE]
OP was owned.
 
[quote name='billyG']I have always wondered why it takes these people so long to put games away? I was in a GS a few days ago and one of the workers was training someone in and there was 2 stacks of 10 games that needed to be put away. The guy doing the training was saying how "decieving" the stack looked because it would take well over a hour to put them away.[/QUOTE]

Most likely it's because the games have to be alphabetized on the shelves. One of the first things you learn is there can't be any holes, no empty spaces on the shelves or walls. That means if you get a get that starts with the letter "B", you may actually have to shift the entire wall. Usually it's also one person cleaning the entire store, while another employee closes down the registers.
 
You know when the best time to call to get trade-in prices? It's never a good time. Bring your lazy fucking ass in the store. You obviously have some games you don't want and it's pointless to drive and extra 5-10 to save $1-$2 dollars that you'd be 'making' extra. If you live so far out in the styx where you have no choice but to call, don't. Let me save you some time by telling you that your Madden game from last football season or your Hello Kitty Cube Frenzy is not worth dick.

It should be mandatory the everyone works in retail for one x-mas season. Once you experiance the pain of customer service, you WILL understand. :D
 
I can see both sides. You have a few games and you are debating on wether to sell them on ebay or trade them in. Also as a employee its sorta your job to bring people in. When I worked at radioshack people would call and ask about phone prices. We would say oh we got some for free why don't you come on down. I get you all set-up BTW whats you name I will be looking for you. then they would say oh I just want to know what phones you got. I have a lot of different phones come on in and I will get you set up and take care of everything.

IMO the employee should have not lied. But on the other hand I have been there it's almost closing and you don't want nothing to do but go home. You don't want to see another customer until your next shift, or you have had all bad customers all day long.
 
[quote name='CappyCobra']You know when the best time to call to get trade-in prices? It's never a good time. Bring your lazy fucking ass in the store. You obviously have some games you don't want and it's pointless to drive and extra 5-10 to save $1-$2 dollars that you'd be 'making' extra. If you live so far out in the styx where you have no choice but to call, don't. Let me save you some time by telling you that your Madden game from last football season or your Hello Kitty Cube Frenzy is not worth dick.

It should be mandatory the everyone works in retail for one x-mas season. Once you experiance the pain of customer service, you WILL understand. :D[/QUOTE]

:applause:
 
[quote name='CappyCobra']You know when the best time to call to get trade-in prices? It's never a good time. Bring your lazy fucking ass in the store. You obviously have some games you don't want and it's pointless to drive and extra 5-10 to save $1-$2 dollars that you'd be 'making' extra. If you live so far out in the styx where you have no choice but to call, don't. Let me save you some time by telling you that your Madden game from last football season or your Hello Kitty Cube Frenzy is not worth dick.

It should be mandatory the everyone works in retail for one x-mas season. Once you experiance the pain of customer service, you WILL understand. :D[/QUOTE]

Here-here. Or BTS and No-Tax at the same time.

I don't agree with lying, but the customer wouldn't take a fucking hint. If you don't come to the store, you aren't serious about trading it in anyways.
 
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