Why Best Buy is the best game retailer
So I'm sure many of you have heard of @gamer magazine aka Best Buy's answer to Game Informer. Well it is no only and answer, but a flat out stomp. Content-wise Game Informer has the edge, but @gamer magazine is a magazine for gamers, written by gamers. It reads like a mix between gaming website and your techy / gamer friend. But that's not why it's better.
Once upon a time Game Informer included coupons and discounts for Gamestop such as Buy 2 Get 1 free, extra 50% trade-in, or 30% off any game (limit 3) in addition to your standard 10% off. Those were the good old days, and those deals are long gone, and only issued when Gamestop feels the need. However, each issue of @gamer magazine offers $135 in savings on various gaming products, and today was the first time I realized just how useful this magazine is.
I walked into Best Buy with a plan. Buy Batman AC, Rage, Bulletstorm, and Mass Effect 2. Had I bought them all day 1 it would have been $240 out of my pocket. But heading in today I was looking at a more reasonable $90 (Batman $60 marked down to $30, and the others $20) All brand new. In comparison Gamestop would have cost $120 for all 4 games new, and even at a used price they're $106 or $95.60 with 10% off. WTF Gamestop. But thanks to @gamer magazine and their awesome coupons I save $20 on Batman, and $15 on the others, bringing the total price down to $27.92. Can you say amazing deal.
I also got a $10 off coupon in store, and used my $10 off any pre-played game and got Left 4 Dead 2 (another copy) for free.
5 games for $27.92. I'm done with Gamestop.
In-store Best Buy Used games are so sketchy you'll be hard pressed to find anything brand new or over a year old in your city, especially if they have Buy 2 Get 1 or Buy 2 get 2 free. They need to get their used games collection up in-stores.
But @gamer magazine is wonderful.
The used game selection is going to be like that for a while since we just started doing it and we don't just take our trade ins and put them on the wall like Gamestop does, they get sent out for verification and such.
Also, I'm happy that you may have stumbled upon a "good" Best Buy because there are some terrible ones - but more power to you and I'll relay the good word to my friends that work there when I go in tomorrow to work/pick up ME3.
Something like Best Buy, GameStop, etc., which operates anywhere, would be nice.
Oh well, we have a Free Record Shop, which is still not exclusive to games.
Or ePlaza, which is no dedicated games store (just a part of some toys shop).
Plus, sometimes they screw up and send you two gift card codes. This has happened to me (luckily) three times and seems to occur when there is a pre-order DLC code being sent to you. I'll get an email launch day with the DLC code and the gift card code and a day later I'll get another email with just the gift card code (different code number). I pre-ordered Racoon City for $20.98 lol. For that cheap I'll risk it sucking.
Their customer service for this issue was a total mess as well. No one seemed to have any idea what had happened at all. They "fixed the errors" (which actually still left me without two of the items I ordered), and I was told several times that someone would be contacting me to compensate these issues, only no one ever called. After several weeks of this I ended up seeing that they finally refunded the monetary portion, but still no one had called or emailed me about what happened. Even later I got a generic customer-service email offering me an $8 gift card, for a different issue then the main problem on that order, and which was laughable for the amount of problems this all caused, but I figured I'd brush it off.
Having resolved the problems (at least sort-of) through their over-the-phone customer service, I just assumed that it could've been just a small error on their system's end and later I tried ordering several other items online, and then had a couple experiences in-store with them. All of these experiences were on-par with the others, including one point where I brought in a deal to my local store that I printed from their website for a game that was on sale but was marked down as in-store only, and two women at the customer service desk proceeded with throwing me indirect insults, including calling me a liar and insisting that the sale was preposterous and was blatantly not real (basically calling me a liar). Then when I proved them wrong, they didn't apologize, they still wouldn't honor the deal, and I left pretty pissed off.
So now I almost exclusively use Amazon and Gamefly for all my purchases. Gamefly almost consistently has the cheapest used game prices, and they ensure that you will be getting the original box, sleeves, and manual when you buy the game, which usually also means that any "new-game" DLC or online passes actually come with the game (I don't know if they remove it for certain games but I know any that I've ordered had it inside the game, and if it wasn't there, their customer service helped me get a new code and/or offered me a free month of service due to the problem). And Amazon tends to have the best pre-order deals for new games and many great sales for other recent titles. And the best part of these two services is that their customer service support is hands-down some of the best that I've ever used. Anyway, that's my thoughts on the topic.
But other than that I've had no problems with Best Buy.
But everyone has different experiences, and I'm sure there's some good Best Buys with wonderful employees out there, including your local one from the sound of it. But for me I'll probably not be shopping there unless I see a very impressive deal that I feel confident I won't have any hassles getting it. As I mentioned, my personal best experiences have been with Amazon and Gamefly. If you haven't checked out Gamefly's used games on their site, I highly recommend taking a look, especially during sales.
Batman was $60 down to $30 sale price, and they let me use a $20 coupon bringing it down to $10.
Speak with a manager about it.
Last year, for buying five games from a list of new releases, you got $100 in Reward Zone credit back after buying the final game.
So I got Rage, Skyrim, Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, and Uncharted 3. I got $100 in RZ credit, and I was able to get about $35 back from price matching on top of that. Plus I got my normal Reward Zone bonuses, so it was about $160 for five new release games.
It's a shame because Gamestop use to be my favorite place to shop, but now it's awful. They hire people who have no clue what's going on in the store, what's coming out, and have no love for games. When I go into a specialized store I expect the people that work there to been knowledgeable about the items and have some excitement about their job.
There is only one Gamestop I will continue to shop at and that's only when I'm in California. The Gamestop in Belmont, CA is the best Gamestop out there. The employees are friendly, they hold conversations with you about games, and they offer recommendations for you based off your gaming preference, because they're true gamers. I love this gamestop. If you find another like this one post it, because the others can all close down.
because they aren't!
that title goes to steam...100%, hands down by so far it makes each and every other game retailor look like criminals and con artists.
I haven't heard of the @gamer thing though, I'll have to look into that. The only downside for me regarding Best Buy is that the nearest Best Buy from where I live is about a 35-40 minute drive, and I only go out to the bigger cities with a Best Buy store during the weekends-- so usually it's more convenient for me to buy the game whenever I want online with Free 2-Day Shipping (Amazon Prime Member), No Sales Tax, and the occasional Pre-Order Credits for select games -- plus, Amazon tends to have game prices similar to those of Best Buy whenever Best Buy has sales.
With all that said though, I do agree that Best Buy is one of the best brick-and-mortar retailers to buy games, as they tend to have more sales than most other places, especially GameStop.