[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']If they are a jerk to me or hassle me for the usual pre-orders and expect me to do one JUST to get them to shut up about it, then I'll buy something just so I could get a receipt to be able to do the survey from it to give them all 1's. Believe it or not Gamestop corporate values those surveys as much as Sears apparently.[/QUOTE]
Funny you should say that. Tonight I went to the Gamestop closest to me so I could check on the recent penny guides, trade in a few games, download Celebi to my Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver games, and pick up a copy of de Blob 2. Should be a quick in-and-out, right? Noooooooooo. The cashier tried to push more shit on me than anybody at Gamestop ever has.
1) After the clerk scans the games I want to trade in, I ask if they have any unopened copies of de Blob 2 for PS3. He says all they have is the floor copy. He then gives me a weird look and asks, “Why do you want an ‘unopened’ copy?”
“It’s a personal preference,” I tell him. “I just don’t like buying opened copies of games.” The last time I bought an opened “new” copy, I found save data already on the game. I don’t trust that they’re new anymore and I specifically ask for an unopened copy. No employee has ever had a problem with this until now.
“I’ll tell you what I tell everybody else,” he responds. “As soon as we open the game, it goes straight into a sleeve. There’s nothing wrong with it.”
“It’s also about the condition of the case,” I say. “It gets scratched on the shelf. Plus I hate the sticker that goes on it.”
“What sticker?”
“The price tag.”
He scoffs. “I’ll peel the tag off for you.”
“I’ll just take the credit, thanks.”
Yes, I’m truly a nut about the condition of my cases, but that’s my preference and he shouldn’t try to argue with me about it. There’s a less-trafficked Gamestop just a mile away on the same street that probably has an unopened copy, so I have no reason to settle for anything less when I don’t have to.
He rolls his eyes and says: “Well, you should have preordered it if you wanted it unopened.” Which transitions perfectly into his next pitch:
2) “Is there anything you want to preorder?”
I get this question every time I go into a Gamestop, so if this were his only pitch, I wouldn't fault him for it. “No,” I say, “I’ve already got everything preordered that I want.” It’s true in the sense that all the games I want to preorder are already preordered. He responds:
3) “The new Mortal Kombat is coming out soon.”
“I’m not a fan of the series.”
4) “How about Dragon Age 2?”
“I still haven’t beaten the first.”
5) “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was announced pretty recently. How about that?”
“I just started Oblivion last night.”
6) “What about the 3DS? I see that you haven’t preordered it yet. We're getting a bunch of preorders for them, and you can do either black or blue...”
“I’m not going to get it at launch.”
“What do you mean you’re not going to get it at launch?!”
“I’m just not that interested in it.”
“What kind of DS do you currently have?”
“…a DSi.”
“Well…” *tears off a slip of paper with a bunch of 3DS trade-in offers*
7) “You can trade that in towards a 3DS and only have to pay $xxx.xx.”
“Oooooookay…”
8) “Pokemon Black and White are coming out next week. Do you want to preorder one of them?”
“No, I’ve grown kind of tired of Pokemon.” (my first lie in all of this – I’m planning to buy Black at Best Buy with reward certificates on day one, but I don’t feel like explaining that)
9) “We’re doing preorders for the Sony NGP now.”
“Hmm.” No words this time. I figure it’ll only encourage him.
10) “Do you at least want to pay off some of your current preorders?”
*sigh* “I guess I can pay off Okamiden.”
11) “Great! Is there any other game coming out soon that you want to put the rest of this credit on?”
“No, I’ll just save the rest.”
12) “Do you want to finish paying off L.A. Noir too?”
“No.”
13) “Well you’ve got about $45 left after paying off Okamiden. What do you want to do with it?”
“I want to save it!”
Come the

on! There’s a difference between pushing stuff on people and forcing it on them. The entire transaction took about seven or eight minutes to complete. That’s not acceptable when all I want to do is trade in three games, and it’s ESPECIALLY not acceptable when there’s a long-ass line behind me and you’re the only cashier. I’ve never completed a negative survey for a store, but this has me seriously considering it. The only reason I hesitate is because I know the store manager and he’s hooked me up with penny guides in the past in exchange for perfect scores. He said the store typically receives low scores (undeserved, in my experience), so any good scores will pull their average up. He’s a cool guy and I don’t want to hurt his store’s reputation more than it already is, but I don’t feel like I can just let this slip.