Gamestop Experience #1: Batting 1.000

For my first, recorded experience, I went to Gamestop to buy Thief on PS4, brand new, 3 days after it was released. Here is the dialogue as it occurred. (I have clarified the tones people were using. If it was anything but a regular tone then it will be noted such as sarcastic, angry, annoyed etc etc. I have not embellished the story at all as that would be lying and I am living for God and not myself.)

[woodchipper89]

Gamestop is Blockbuster for games.

[Prime157]

Doesn't mean customers should take it out on employees.

[SavageKuma]

It is a pain in the butt, however you have the choice of keeping your games. It is better than getting your pockets stolen from them.

[Everlastingfate]

It is more financially beneficial to both buy and sell games on ebay. I will never understand those that keep games they'll never play again. I have played ten times more games than some of my friends because I am constantly buying, beating, and selling games.

[Ares84HU]

I have 310 PS3 games and sometimes I feel like playing older games. Once I sold my PS2 collection of 125 games and I regret it ever since. Ever since than I refuse to sell my games because I never know when I feel like playing any one of them. I just started to collect back my PS1 collection (currently at 93 games) and I play them a lot and enjoy them as well.

So yeah, I completely disagree with everything you said. But you do what you want to do. If you don't care about having a collection than I guess selling your games is a good option. But than again, why don't you just Gamefly?

[cellur111]

@Ares84HU I guess everybody is different, i never feel the need to go back and play a game i already beat. It's no fun for me because i already know what's going to happen in the story.

[Ares84HU]

@cellur111

Well, you play games for their stories. I play games for fun and their enjoyable gameplay.

You are right. We are different. You probably hated the early days of gaming than.

[danthegamerfiend]

Dude you couldn't have said it better then myself. When you a finish a game and let it sit there. That's money sitting there! This industry will always put out something new and exciting. There are only really few good games worth keeping in my opinion. I mean what's the point of playing something again if you already know the story and the gameplay. That's just how I feel.

[PsylentKiller]

Well, excuse the employee for having a sense of humor. From your article, it sounds like you had the perfect experience at GameStop and yet here you are bashing them for no good reason.
Most people complain that the employees try to push warranties and the power up card way too much. You didn't have any of that. The used prices on games may be a little high but not by much considering all the over head they have. Rent, Advertisement, employees, not to mention the cost of the game. They spent $22 on a game and are reselling it for $33 more.
I wonder, when you sell your game on eBay, do you sell it for $22. The price you would sell it to GameStop for. Or do you sell it for $50 and think of it as an extended rental for yourself.
Why buy anything at GameStop if their such an evil company. Why not go to BestBuy, Walmart, or a small, non corporate video game store.
I buy from GameStop but not as often as I used to. I'm buying mostly digital this generation but I still buy my Live or PSN cash cards from them if I can't find a deal online first. But when I do shop there, the employees are always so nice and courteous. They genuinely love games and want to share their experiences with the customers that care enough to get to know the people that work in the stores they shop in.
I regularly shop at Costco and I've gotten to know the cashiers and the people at the doors. I've gotten to know the people at GameStop as well. It's kind of like going to the barber shop.

With that out of the way, I think you are somewhat right. GameStop needs to adapt and they need to do it quickly. They need to start selling digital codes for games. They need to offer a bit more for used games. They need to sell used games for less. And they need to bring back demoing games in the store.

[Everlastingfate]

You can return any used game within 7 days. That's a free week rental from GameStop if you think you can complete the game and it has no replay value.

[PoSTedUP]

well said. remember funkoland? hah. they use to let me play the games there b4 i buy them.

also, they have the buy back price that low bc, well, people continue to sell their games to them for that price. i usually sell mine on craigslist or wait untill GS has a good incentive (e.g. trade 3 or more get an extra 20% etc.). if i need cash quick i sell them whenever to GS.

@everlast- yeah and you can do that a whole bunch of times, too.

[woodchipper89]

They buy it off of you for 22 and resell at 55. I sell my used games (that are being sold at Gamestop for 55 used) for 40 dollars. That way both parties win.

[PoSTedUP]

why is this here. no.

[jessupj]

I have no idea why people sell their games at GS instead of ebay.

I could have sold gt6 to GS for $8, but instead I spent 3 minutes putting up a listing on ebay at home, than extra 10 minutes at the post office on my way to uni and sold it for $42 minus postage.

If people are dumb enough and stupid enough to go to GS then they deserve to be ripped off. Unfortunately their poor choices are hurting the hard working men and woman that design and create the amazing games we play year after year.

[PoSTedUP]

you do realize that you too just contributed to "hurting the hard working men and women who design and create the amazing games we play year after year" by selling your game to someone, dont you? its literally the same concept, rofl. i buy new and digital to contribute to the devs (used if the game is dirt-old, tho).

[cellur111]

Do people actually care about contributing to the devs? Almost every single one of my games i bought was used. Im not going to pay $10-$20 more just for a new copy of a game when i can get it cheaper used.

[jessupj]

I buy every single one of my games new and gt6 is the very first game I've ever sold in my collection. So don't lecture me about hurting the devs because I'm one of the few that will actually pay extra for a new copy when there's a perfectly good used copy right beside it.

Why do I do that? Because I want the developers getting my money, not some greedy corporation that would suck the life out the gaming industry if it meant a little more money to please shareholders.

@cellur
It's fine if you can't afford it and need to buy used, but when you go out of your way to buy used just because it's $3 cheaper... well... I consider those people a cancer on the industry.

Lucky for you, a lot of people don't think like you, otherwise the industry would die and you wouldn't have any games to buy at all, new or used.

Give a little thought to the developers next time you buy a used game and they don't see a peny for their hard work and time.

[PoSTedUP]

well, just saying, you contributed to what you are against and recommended people selling their games to Ebay which is also a "poor choice" in your own logic and made it seem like only selling your games to gamestop hurts the devs... just saying bud. your first comment is still there. i dont know how to read it anyother way....

[SuperTiso]

I hate articles like this because once again the customer is wrong on it. They ask for pre-owned first because its their job to do it. If they do not try to sell you used first they could be fired.

Secondly, he SHOULD'VE pre-ordered the game. He makes a point about their being no incentive to do so. Here's 2, the game would've been sold out since the store didn't get X amount of reserves to have extras for non reserves. There was also pre-order bonuses as well: An extra story mission and the soundtrack and app program.

[woodchipper89]

I didn't pre order due to I wouldn't have got the game if it had poor reviews. The batting 1.000 comment is what threw me off.

[Darth Gamer]

but you said yourself that you bought the game anyway after hearing that it got poor reviews. doesn't make sense.

[Darth Gamer]

Ok, this customer is trying to hard to keep this "WE HATE GAMESTOP" crap up. This employee did nothing remotely wrong and was actually trying to be pleasant but you still are trying to turn it into a negative experience. Pathetic!! How about you go to any business and write down the conversation. We can probably bitch and complain about every one of them too. You being asked if you preordered is because there were incentives for the game and the card question was because it would tally more points for you to eventually get free things. But, lets bitch about it because your the uninformed ass-hat. The batting 1.000 remark was an attempt to try and be funny and pleasant to you. I think people like this customer should stop being Dicks because they are the problem.
I personally have a great "customer relationship" with every person that works at my local gamestop. I'm in so much that they no me by my voice on the phone without saying my name. I work across the street at a high school and every now and then I will just go in to talk on an off block. My wife even went in during xmas time, told who she was and they treated her like royalty. They even gave her a Titanfall case to take home and wrap up for me so I would be surprised. Moral of the story is try to stop hating and be nice once in a while. You will find your experience to be much more pleasant.
Also, about the trade in policy, let me explain. Its a business. They want to succeed in being a business and have obviously done so. may not be the best price but nobody is forcing you to trade in there either. When you all grow up and own your own video game store, then you can teach us all how to properly run a game store so the customer is getting all they need and want and you still somehow make bucket loads of cash.

[Everlastingfate]

Gamestop Employee Alert

[Darth Gamer]

if you knew how to read, you would have known that I work across the street from one at a high school. I teach art and technology.

also, I love the disagrees.

[Everlastingfate]

A teacher who resorts to personal attacks. Very mature. I assure you I can read just fine. In fact, I can read all the extra digits in my paycheck that yours lacks as a "public servant."

[Everlastingfate]

Also, I noticed numerous typos in your post including mistaking "no" for "know."

Therefore, perhaps it is you who cannot read or spell. Good thing you teach...allegedly.