Top 3 Ways GameStop Can Win Back Gamers’ Trust

Jon Ireson of RGN writes: "I’ve had times in my life where I’ve gone hard against brands I disagree with, but perhaps I’ve gone too far because I saw unfulfilled potential and missed opportunities. I’m here today to provide what is hopefully much more valuable feedback and constructive criticism about one brand in particular. Gamestop is the bane of many gamers’ existence, but it doesn’t have to be – and it wasn’t always this way."

[AltairvsEzio]

Gamestop pe-order offers are useless

[DEEBO]

Work at gamestop for about four years,cool job and love the ac(construction work before)

But i did hate harassing people all the time.

And yes i did check out new games,old ones too.

Now they have the credit card thing on top of the pro card and pre-orders and you can just see it in the consumers face that they are tired of all the questions.

If you love games and need a part-time job gamestop can be ok.

Yeah and they make a killing on use games but they also have alot of back stock of the same game.

Digital and other stores are cutting into their profits but gamestop will be around for a long time so get use to it.

[kreate]

If they give me a free game of my choosing, i would open a credit card.

[user5575708]

no. dont ever get a gamestop credit card. probably the highest APR i have ever seen

[kreate]

@knock

True...

[nowitzki2004]

You will most likely end up paying more than that game costs with credit card fees.

[jb227]

Were you incentivized or kinda forced to harass people about add-ons? I worked at Sam Goody back when record stores still existed & I put my foot down on forcing people to buy loyalty cards they wouldn't benefit from, aside from the fact that I was generally horrible at it when I did try, and they let me work the floor & break down the trucks. Always been a big music fan & I could catalog all of the records by name & genre by a quick glance at the cover so I put out the stock in half the time that everyone else did, plus we were selling instruments back then so my knowledge of that helped them make a few sales I'd reckon. It seems like these days most businesses would rather hire someone good at selling useless add-ons than employees that would have a genuine knowledge of the product they sell and that's a shame. It's always nice to be able to talk shop w/ people who truly dig what they are selling vs. someone who's going to ask you to buy a bunch of junk you have no interest in.

[DEEBO]

They make you push all that things on people or no hours.

It's sad too because some people need that job,i'm just blessed that I'm not one of them.

[SaveFerris]

I'm not familiar with Gamestop, but I've read posts online regarding selling open games as brand new. What is this phenomenon?

[Summons75]

GameStop has a benefit for employees that they can borrow games in order to "have a better understanding of the products" but employees will borrow new games and bring them back. Also GameStop needs cases to display the games because of how many scummy people will walk off with games. New games get opened and the game sealed in a sleeve for safe keeping. Both ways have major flaws. Use to work there, GameStop is full of flawed ideals and ways of conducting business.

[spektical]

the fun part is if you dont get your games on day 1, its a crapshoot to determine if you really had a "new" game. I recall before they took the game out and packaged it with the manual in look-alike factory packaging. Of course now you can just reseal the whole box.

[rainslacker]

Their floor display boxes are made up of actual games they get in to sell which they break the shrinkwrap on, and store the game behind the counter...because apparently printing off a box insert, or simply asking the publishers for extra ones for display purposes like they do for pre-order display purposes, is too much for them to comprehend.

If one is wishing to buy the last copy of a new game they have for sale then they sell you an open game, and pull the box off the shelf. They put a little sticker around the edge which leaves a wicked residue on the case to make the game new again...at least in their eyes.

I've heard stories of people saying they've gotten obviously used games in this manner, but from my understanding, new game releases are not supposed to be checked out in this manner, and you can't check out a game unless there is a certain number of them in stock. I'm sure at some stores though it happens, but it's not company policy.

Despite my negative tone, I actually don't have problems with GS, and do think some people are unfair in their criticisms on some of their policies(like trade ins because it's not like GS forces them to trade in for crap values). They do upsell A LOT. But I honestly don't think it's any more than many other similar retail establishments or fast food restraunts. They employees do try to upsell harder though, because their hours are dependent on them meeting certain numbers in that area.

[user5575708]

they open the game but they say that it is new because it hasnt been played. yet once you remove the shrink wrap from a new game you buy...it is considered used if you try to return it and is immediately worth less.

i have even seen them try to sell "new" games without the original case art and manual.

either way it doesn't matter because the company is destined to fail after this gen unless it makes drastic changes

[purebennyc]

EB Games is exactly the same in NZ

[Macdaddy71]

Selling the games that's been played is BS!!! For one if I take a game in i get used price for it no matter if I played it one time or a hundred, so the one that are open by them n played should be sold as used!!!! GameStop needs to bring back a reason to buy there discount card again,.. They did away with promotion like 10% plus more off, not worth a crap just to save the tax.. GameStop should go in business with EA they both all bout them self n not gamers

[GoPanthers999]

Buying about 75% from BB with GC Unlocked and the rest from Xbox Store and EA Access. GS prices stink and trade in values are a joke. They will have to implement a program like BB for me to consider buying my games there.

[GoPanthers999]

My homeschooled 6 year old daughter just read my comment to me! I am impressed!

[TitanUp]

I buy all games new so no reason for me to be worried about their used game price policies. On the other hand I don't want to know anything about their credit card.

[DanielEndurance]

I hate shopping at GameStop because I got to hear a bunch of s*** when I go to checkout.
"Want to pre-order any games?"
"Want a credit card?" F*** no.
"Want to renew your power up rewards?" Yeah, if it wasn't a rip off to do so.
"If you're approved for a credit card, you'll get $15 which you can use to renew your card. Wanna do that?" No, stfu dude.
Not to mention they never have a game on sale before other retailers. They're always the last ones and it's so long after that the game's not even relevant anymore.

[Eonjay]

Well, one of the reasons they lot trust is the fact that they price things in ways that are clear cash grabs.

For example, everyone sold Final Fantasy Type 0 Collector's Edition for 99.99... GameStop has it for 109.99.

Or when everyone ran out of PS4 cameras and GameStop jacked the price way up... Or Xenoblade... or the fact that they don't offer decent trade values when compared to their profit margins on used items.

[jmc8888]

Umm, not to be the bearer of bad news, but you should NEVER trust a corporation. Thus there is nothing they can do that should ever make you go back to 'trusting' them.

You're an adult, this is the way it is. Either bury your head and be surprised when you're screwed over or think critically and prepare accordingly.

[RJ92009]

I miss funcoland.

[nowitzki2004]

I love when a big game releases and I drive by GameStop close to midnight on my way to WalMart and there is like 100 people outside of GameStop. I just go into WalMart get the game and it usually comes with preordered content even though I never preorder. Then on my way back theres still so many people at GameStop.

[Poroz]

I said I was not going to shop there ever again, and I ment that. Been with steam/origin/uplay/blizzard ever since. Told them they were going to loose my business. I followed through. Honestly I have an awesome collection of games that can be passed down to my kids. With consoles. I could never achieve an collection.

[Hitman0769]

Good call buddy. I buy consoles online too and they never break. Gamestop seems to throw their stock around violently and I've heard of other stores doing the same. So I don't even use stores for hardware either.