[quote name='FNL 4EVA']I know some people will like to bash me back but how they work needs to be known.[/QUOTE]
Nah, I think that all of your points are fair enough, so I don't think there's any reason that anyone should bash you, though I don't think there's any great mystery to most of them.
First of all, I really don't get why people pre-order from GameStop stores (or any other b&m stores charging full retail price, for that matter), at least when there are no pre-order bonuses involved (and even then, given their reputation for not handling those bonuses properly in-store, I'd question it). I mean, seriously, if you're going to be paying full retail price anyway, why not hold out and see where the best deals are on the release date? Hell, I can see why they'd be laughing, because they pretty much just took that $5 deposit from you for no reason (at least online there's no deposit to worry about). The only time that I'll pre-order is when I get a particularly good deal (such as the 25% off coupon) or, on rarer occasions, if there's a pre-order bonus that I really want.
Secondly, honestly, used consoles are for suckers in so many ways. Even with a console that seems to work absolutely perfectly at the moment, you never know how it has been treated or how much life is left in the hardware (the drive may work fine today and fail tomorrow, for example). And even if the store did test every one of them, the test would only be cursory at best regardless (so, ok, maybe their test disc works, but if half of the others put into it don't, they're not going to know). As for your cockroach story . . . ew, gross -- but honestly, it's entirely possible that it wouldn't have even been noticed with a thorough test and inspection -- depending on where inside of it the eggs were, it may have worked just fine, and they may not have been visible. It could happen anywhere, it's not just a GameStop issue. The moral to this story, kids? Avoid used consoles.
Unplayable used games? Yup, I won't buy used games from them online, specifically because I can't see what I'm getting. I've done it exactly once, recently, as a test to see what I'd get, and I ended up returning it right away because I didn't find the condition acceptable (to be fair, I'm pretty picky -- I want my used games to look practically new or I'm not interested). I won't be doing that again. The guy in the store didn't give me any problems with returning it, though -- I went in, did the return, and left in under three minutes. Now I only buy used games from them in the store, where I can inspect them before buying.
As for your issues with online ordering -- well, that sucks, but all I can say in response is that I've never had an issue. Then again, I've also never paid extra for overnight/release date shipping, I've always taken the free budget shipping option, so I can't speak to how reliable they are with that. So far, at least, I've pretty much always gotten my game no later than Friday on the week it's come out, which is fine with me (with my backlog, I never get to anything that quickly anyway). Actually, the last time I had a significantly longer than normal delay on a new release game, it was coming from Amazon (for some reason it took Amazon nearly two weeks to get SMT: Strange Journey to me).
So yeah, your points are valid, and I can see why you wouldn't want to shop there if those have been your experiences. Fortunately, I guess I've been lucky so far, and I haven't had those issues. If at some point in the future I do have them (at least those that apply -- won't be buying any used consoles from them anytime . . . well, ever), obviously I'll have to re-evaluate.
