Gamestop has blacklisted me. How about you?

Nutts

Nutts

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Wow. I've been trying to take advantage of the save 25% off orders of $100 or more from Gamestop.com but my last three attempts at an order have been canceled. After the first two were canceled (with no e-mail or any kind of notification) I called and tried to find out what was going on. They told me that they thought it was my bank that was denying my purchase. They apologized and gave me a coupon code for another $20 off my next order. I then called my bank, but they claimed not to have had any denied or blocked transactions. So I placed my third order. That was earlier today and it was canceled again. I called Gamestop for a second time. This time I got forwarded their Customer Service "Lead". They told me that my billing information had all been flagged as someone they did not want to "risk doing business with". I was stunned. They could offer no reason why I was flagged as such. All they said was that any order coming from the ip address, or shipped to my address, or using my CC, would all be denied. They suggested I order through a different retailer.

Needless to say I was pissed. I have no idea why I'm flagged for such a thing. I imagine I'm not the only one to experience this though from Gamestop. I don't order that much from them. I checked and my history is only about 3 or 4 times a year. However, the last order was on 4/17 and then I was first denied on 4/27.

I'm not sure what I can do about the situation, but even if I do get cleared to order from them again, I'm not sure that I would. Any company that can deny me without any legitimate reason isn't one I really want to patronize either. I already do most of my game shopping though Amazon.com or Target Clearances.

I have filed a complaint to the BBB. I don't know if that will do any good, but I would like to get a detailed explanation as to why they are denying me. If anyone else has had an experience like this. I'd be interested to know what came of it, and if there is anything else I can do. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks for listening to me bitch! :)
 
Here's your options:

Make an order from a different computer with a different IP address, have it shipped to a friends' house and use a different CC to order with.

OR

Just do like you said and order with other retailers.

Oh and what do you plan on doing with that $20 off code?;)
 
What did you previously order, and what did you attempt to order these recent times?
 
I've been flagged as well, which is lame because I have some credit I'd rather use online than in store. The reason I was flagged was because of an order last month during the 25% off sale. I had made an order with my Wachovia card, which then merged with Wells Fargo later on as some of you may know, so the Wachovia card stopped working and my order was canceled.

When I put in another order with when my new card from Wells Fargo arrived, it got canceled as well. I called and spoke to someone about it, who told me unfortunately I was flagged and can no longer place orders online. I explained everything that happened and he said he understands but once the computer flags someone they can't do anything about it to take it off the account.
 
Well, the last successful order from Gamestop was for four games. 3 were used and 1 was new. I can't remember what the deals were last month, but I used two coupon codes as many CAGS also did. I can't remember what they were. Something like 15% your used order and free shipping for orders over 60? I don't think there was anything wrong with coupon code stacking. It's mentioned here all the time. And even the guy on the phone gave me a code which was supposed to work with the 25% off code, but it didn't.

The first unsuccessful order was for Record of Argarest War. Then the second order was when I added Battlefield Bad Company 2 to it, to save 25% off on orders over 100. After that order was mysteriously canceled, is when I called them.

They basically made me feel like a criminal or something over the phone (the second time). And telling someone that they should shop somewhere else because they don't want my business, is a completely new kind of business model to me. What ever happened to the Consumer is always right?

In any case. If it's some sort of bank issue, or weird circumstance, then fine. They just have a crappy order processing system then. It wouldn't be the first problem that they have. And while in the past they may have been worse, I had really thought they were coming back around.

I'm sure I'll find Bad Company 2 in the next few weeks for 39.99. Whether it be a Best Buy weekly sale, Amazon.com drop, deal of the day, or a new K-Mart blog post, but every once in a while, GS will have the drop first or the timing with something like their 25% deal off of 100.

It also just bothers me overall, that there is no detailed explanation of what is wrong. For all I know, maybe my identity has been stolen and this is just the first sign. A lot of help they are in telling me that my information has been flagged and they don't want to take the risk of doing business with me.
 
Ok, so here's the follow up, to this story. Two days after placing the BBB complaint, a representative from gamestop called me. She explained that they were able to look deeper into the problem and found that the ip address I used to place one of their orders (the first canceled one) came back from their fraud checking software as an ip address that was reported fraudulent by another third party website. This then got transferred to all of my information, so if any of that information was used to place an order it would be canceled.

Now this sort of makes sense to me, because I used my pc at work to place the order. I work at a large corporation and there are probably close to 10,000 pcs here. I don't know how many external ip addresses we have here or how they get assigned to our internal ip address. But I could see where someone else here could have done something fraudulent and I just happened to be on the same network segment as they are, and therefore got caught in some bad luck.

They said that based on my pass good order history with them, that they would have my information altered by their fraud protection department. Basically I think it will ignore the ip address check or make the primary decision based on my name and address instead or something.

I guess that should be something to think about if you order anything over the internet from work, and you work in a large company.

The representative that called me was very nice and helpful through the whole processes. I placed a new order last night and I expect it will go through.
 
Ever since this last recent sale, I've can't access gamestop.com? It almost seems like my IP has been blocked from the site. Because I can access it thru an IP blocker site. I've had an issue like this previsously and it seemed to be fixed once I reset my IE back to the original settings. I haven't tried it yet but was just wondering if this is common and how this occurs? Of course, this is probably just user error but seems kind of weird that it works via an alternate site.
 
Is this the email you've been getting?

Dear Valued Customer,

Our records indicate that you recently placed order number XXXXXX with us at GameStop.com or EBgames.com. Thank you for your business.

Unfortunately our system was unable to process your order. This has resulted in the order’s cancellation. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

As a possible solution, we would recommend these steps:


  • Contact your financial institution and confirm that the information they have on file matches with all the information you included when you placed your order.




  • Limit your purchase to less than $500 if you are a first time Gamestop.com customer.


If you require any further assistance, please feel free to reply to this email and we will be more than happy to assist you further.
You may also contact us at 1-800-883-8895.

Best Regards

Jeanetta
Gamestop.com
Power To The Players
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I've been getting that ever since I've tried preordering a SC2 CE + Peacewalker LE at GS.com. I've emailed them and they didn't answer my question at all or tell me why I'm having problems. I really don't want to call them, but I guess I might have.
 
People don't believe me when I warn them that Gamestop blacklists people, even over minor but "suspicious" things. Even if you do something as harmless as canceling a few orders and reordering (not for glitching, but merely to combine orders) that's sometimes enough to trigger their systems...
 
Sorry to hear about your bad experience, Nutts. Glad it seems to be on its way to getting resolved.

For people who think GameStop is lame for blacklisting people, understand that there is an incredible amount of fraud/theft/shrinkage regarding video game hardware and software purchases, both online and in stores.

Aside from stolen credit card #'s and scams, there's also a fair share of kids using their parent's credit cards without permission. These orders inevitably get canceled or returned, so I'd imagine GameStop is incredibly sensitive to anything even remotely suspicious, whether the buyer intended it or not.

A couple of things:

1.) In the US, any company can refuse to do business with any customer for almost any reason. There is no law compelling them to justify denying a consumer. If a customer claims discrimination (race, sex, religion, age, etc.), the onus is on the customer to PROVE it, which is obviously impossible because the company can then claim it denied them for whatever non-discriminatory reason they want. Just keep in mind there are exceptions to discrimination laws (ex. a 15 y/o can't claim a liquor store refusing to sell him alcohol was discriminating against his age).
2.) That said, to the CAG who had the GameStop rep tell them that once you're blacklisted there's nothing they can do, this is an "untruth." If a company can take an action against a customer, they can reverse it, because it's company policy, and not law. It's just a matter of finding the right helpful person to plead your case to. Of course, it doesn't mean they'll do it. But you can try. :)
 
[quote name='Nutts']What ever happened to the Consumer is always right? [/QUOTE]

People abusing the living hell out of, well, everything. That's what happened.
 
Well, looks like I'm on the "Blacklisted" train. Of course, I find the whole thing so ridiculous that I'm simply no longer going to deal with GS. I'm tired of the crappy service to the point that the ease of simply trading in stuff at the store is not longer worth the hassle.

Amazon might take longer on trades, but at least the service is head and shoulders better.
 
I've been banned for a couple months, glad I got rid of most of my credit that first time they had a B1G1.

Think it was around January or February I had enough credit to get a few games and a PS3 (which is why I amassed the credit in the first place) but everywhere was out of stock. So after getting fed up with going to GS B&M twice a week to check if they got a shipment I tried cashing out my credit, by fliping a few copies of NBA 2k10 to Amazon and Gazelle. Tried buying I think it was 6 copies of NBA 2k10 (Both PS3/360) and it got canceled. So I tried a few more times, then tried splitting it into orders of 3 and was all to no avail so I thought nothing of it.

Couple months later I bought a PS3 and got rid of the rest of my credit with the B1G1 (Didn't do anything that got me flagged here I think, single copies of games I actually wanted.) Traded in a few more games and got back up to $100 'ish in credit because GS actually started having competitive online deals. Tried ordering 2 copies of AC2 during that sale week or month they were having, Disgaea 3 and I forgot what the third game was to hit $75 to trigger a promo (might been $100) and the order got canceled. Then tried just buying a copy of FFXIII, AC2 and Disgaea 3 and that got canceled as well.

At this point I had a good idea about what was going on having read these forums quite a bit, called them up and asked what was going on. First guy had no clue, escalated to supervisor and he kinda went off on me. "GS isn't for people like you." "You knew exactly what you were doing." Said it wasn't my fault it was easy to abuse trade in promotions, practically asking people to amass credit when you can trade in a game and get $40 in credit, or trade in old ass games and get $20 in credit. (Lego Batman/Pure bundle, Transformers ROTF, Fairytale Fights, etc. during that promotion right after Xmas.) Asked what to do with the rest of my credit and he said you should of thought of that before you traded your games in. Guess it's not too fun when it's the consumer getting over on you as compared to you fucking over the consumer. I still have $100 in credit and nothing to do with it.

Understand why I was blacklisted, but don't get how AC2 is what triggered it. Was nowhere near the NBA2k10 I tried getting. (Which I felt was a we all win situation; I get rid of my credit and they get rid of NBA games that were going to start dropping rapidly in value.)

Kinda sucks because up until I got blacklisted they had pretty mediocre deals and now they're pretty competitive. Suppose I'm still drowning in backlog and I've started using Goozex, so not much need for a place to get newer games.
 
Everybody mentioning Amazon as an alternative, you need to be careful there too. People have been blacklisted for making too many returns or too many calls to customer service. Any company can decide that a customer is more trouble than they're worth, even if you don't actually violate any policy.
 
[quote name='Ryuukishi']Everybody mentioning Amazon as an alternative, you need to be careful there too. People have been blacklisted for making too many returns or too many calls to customer service. Any company can decide that a customer is more trouble than they're worth, even if you don't actually violate any policy.[/QUOTE]

and they can even make up lies about you and then look stupid when you prove they are wrong.

blockbuster online did this to me a few years back.. said i kept 5 or so of their movies yet i have kept every email saying the movies were returned ...

I probally would of won the lawsuit and force them to accept me back but it wasnt worth my time
 
Well, I'd stand by and say I deserved it if I actually did anything wrong, but the fact of the mater is I'm not an extreme flipper. I've never sold more than one copy of a game. On top of that, I've only made three order online with GS, and all three have been canceled. I've never been able to benefit from any of these ridiculous online sales... :(

I'm probably going to follow the OP's path and file with the BBB. There's a reason why GS only has a C+ rating with the BBB.
 
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