Gamestop manager busts retail myths

well.
all i have to say is that i work for gamestop.
and its great.
sure. we have that guy that pushes magazine subscriptions like a used car salesman, but for the most part, everyone that works there is polite and honest with the customers.
i mean, all you have to tell us is no.
i dont even offer promotions or subscriptions to people that look pissed off.
but it is a part of my job, and a large amount of what the company bases pay raises on.
so i have to do it.
i dont really enjoy it though.

and the card really does save money. espically on used ps3 and 360 games.

and another thing.
you cant expect us to always know EVERYTHING about EVERY game.
get real.
do you expect someone at home depot to know everything about all the different types of screws?
we do our best to help you,
but you have to remember that GS employees are hired,not on the knowledge base of games, but on their qualifications for retail.
are they personable.
are they good with numbers...
do they have experience.
just like every other retailer.

oh.
and last thing.
the reason we sell new, opened games is because nintendo, sony, and microsoft dont send us display boxes of the games, so we have to gut (take the game out, put it in a sleeve, and file behind the counter) one and display it so you know we have it.
i make it a point to let customers know that theyre getting this last, gutted copy. and i make sure the part timers beneath me stress it too.
i know some people have an issue with it, but most dont.
so. if you do, then say "sorry, id prefer to have it unopened. i guess ill try target."
dont get pissed at us.
its just us, doing our job.
just like everyone else just does their job.

pown

Having worked at a Gamestop for nearly a year and a half, this guy is dead-on. GS/EB employees get some major flack that they don't deserve.

It's your choice to work there, so you deserve whatever issues people have with the corporation as a whole. No one is forcing you to work for a company such as GameStop. That's like saying that a telemarketer should be treated warmly when they call during dinner. Even though they don't decide when to call you, they do decide to continue to work there.

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Having worked for eb/gamestop for over 4 years.... there are a lot of toolbag employees. Not at my stores though....but what can you expect from an employee when I can only offer my newly hired associate minimum wage...well that was the case in south louisiana/texas area....And as a former employee, I am pretty much disgusted with the quality of customer service I receive when I shop at these stores...

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In India, working at a call center is THE SHIT. It's not the despicable career that the rest of the world views it as.

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So, effectively speaking, I can crap on any employee of any place asked to do anything, no matter their utter lack of responsibility for the actions they're being asked to perform?

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Eh, whatever. Some are tools, as aforementioned, some aren't. Sure, sure. The problem is, the tool to non-tool ratio is very heavy in favor of the former.

I've been actually told blatantly false info, told to leave at 15min. till closing and heard no end to the Nintendo-worship and anti-Sony rhetoric: "You don't want to buy a PS3 - buy a Wii instead." - "The DS is much better and has many more games than the PSP." and so forth.

Fewer agenda-pushing, platform biased snot-nosed pimple-pickers would be nice. Toss in a few who actually want to help customers pick what is best for the customer as opposed to themselves.

Hearing the pitch for a pre-order doesn't bother me, but arguing over why I 'bother' to buy PSP games does.

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No, your ratio is skewed as well. Non-tool to tool ratio is more like 5000:1. You are just unlucky.

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fwacce,

Until EB employees start randomly calling my house at 9:00 at night, your analogy will remain a failure.

Also, hegemonyhog: wtf?

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I pick up my pre-orders, and get hounded for pre-orders for other games. I say, listen, I'm not interested in Mass Effect, I have COD4 and Assassins Creed on Pre-Order, leave me alone.

Then you get a BS line about how if I change my mind I may not be able to pick up a copy, and how I may miss a pre-order bonus...which usually is useless like the poster that came with COD4.

They don't understand that most gamers know what they want, and when it will be available. I'll preorder what I want to pick up day one, period. They aren't even trying to sell me on the aspects of the game or anything. They are just pushing preorders. I'm suprised the guy didn't ask me to preorder my little pony for the Xbox 360....I don't want to miss out.

It's annoying, and they don't take no for an answer...and that is the hard part.

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"They don't understand that most gamers know what they want, and when it will be available.

If there's anything I learned from this place, it's that that's not always the case.

Anyways, you can't expect a gamestop employee to know your gaming intellegince simply by looking at you. Unless you're a sterotypical nerd, complete with the pocket protecter, glasses, and high nasily voice arguing with your friend about who would win in a fight, Mario or Snake, there's a good chance that he or she is just going to assume that your another idiot that needs to have their hands held when buying games.

I find that saying something or trying to strike a conversation works wonders. Not only does it allow the employee to know where your coming from, but it also shows that your not a total idiot and you know what you want.

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Yeah it's a good read. I honestly don't understand the crap that GS gets. I've been to multiple gamestops, and a couple in other states, and I've almost always had good service. The people are nice, they don't push reserves down my throat, and they know what the hell they're selling. I just think the reason why everyone is against GS is simply because it's an easy target.

You must live in a fantasy land filled with magical flying unicorns and leprechauns who file you taxes for free.

Just about every EB or Gamestop I've regulary shopped at has left me with some WTF experience. Be it the time some asshole knocked a cup out of my hand and the EB associate handed me a roll of paper towels and told me to "Clean that shit up", the time they fucked up my discount card account and blamed me for it even though I wasn't the person entering the data, the false information about various games and hardware, or the countless arguments hurled at me concerning the version of the game I am buying.....

Just like video game sites, those stores are riddled with morons.

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Hey hate to tell you, but your experience dosn't represent everyone. And no I'm not lying, I've never had any problems with GS.

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I know we all would just love to jump on the bandwagon and blame GS for being the evil corporation, but the reality is is that GS isn't as bad as people make it to be.

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I love the couple of gamestops I go to. Always clean and well organized, friendly workers, plenty of stuff in stock. Sure I get asked about preorders, but who cares? just say no if you don't want it.

I think it's reasonable to complain about annoying experiences about retail.

I popped into Gamestop to pick up Halo 3 on day of release.

Clerk: Did you preorder?

Me: No.

Clerk (audible sigh): OK, I'll see if we have any.

[Clerk lumbers a few steps over with such world-weary drama that I think I must have ordered him to perform the labors of Sisyphus. With drama and deliberation, he slowly sifts through the stack of several dozen Halos that are not in the preorder pile. Returns]

Clerk: We still have one available

Me: Oh, good. I'm glad you were able to find one.

[My buddy thinks this is hilarious, and starts loudly berating me that next time I should preorder one to be sure that I get a copy.]

Clerk: Would you like...?

Me: No, no, no.

[Clerk checks me out]

Did I suffer a great injustice? No, it's just an annoying experience that I don't have to put up with at other retail outlets. It's not great customer service. And it's OK to post on the internet that it's obnoxious.

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@copa

I don't know, it sounds to me that you were being a bit of a prick.

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heres what I do:

me: Do you have X game avaliable?
clerk: Did you preorder it?
me: no, I thought I'd risk it
clerk: you should preorder in the future, so you can be guaranteed a copy
me: I preorder the games that I MUST have on day one, otherwise it doesn't matter
clerk: makes sense.
[rings me up]
clerk: would you like to preorder game Y?
me: no thanks, not right now.
clerk: ok, have a good day

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Here's what I do.

*Browsing not wanting to be bothered*
Clerk: Oh here's our list of games coming out. You should pre-order these to make sure you get them.
Me: No thank.
Clerk: Really? That's too bad. I think you'd really enjoy it.
Me: *ignores annoying clerk*
Clerk: Is there anything else I can help you find?
Me: Yeah, the exit. *walks out*

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That first "Did you preorder it" is usually just so we know whether or not to grab it out of the preorder stack or not. It's better to ask than have a pissed off customer because we didn't give him his five-dollar credit towards the game.

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Sometimes I've had good service at Gamestop, other times I haven't. It's 50/50...

It was highly annoying one night, however, when I was picking up my copy of VF5 for PS3 long ago. My biggest issue was that they had three workers. Two were obviously occupied with, mental masterbation? Actually, that's a lie. They started a trade in fr a customer towards an Xbox 360. But the customer had no clue what they wanted and they were shopping. So rather than putting this money credit on a gift card like reasonably thinking people would, they decided instead to bash PS3 while my friend was working the only other register, with a line of about 8 people. The annoying aspect was they tied a register up during a hugely busy time and was constantly on my friends ass to make suggestions for customers rather than help with the crowd. Eventually my turn came about and naturally I got to hear about how PS3 sucks from the guy pulling my game from the preorder section and I just had to snap on them much to the agreement of other annoyed people in line behind.

"You know, you two are fucking clownshoes and the sooner they fire your ass to get someone in who knows how to help customers rather than berate them, the better. You have a huge line and you're bagging on Resistance. How retarded are you?"

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It's the main problem with retail all over - people who don't work in stores forcing policies on the employees who have to actually interact with customers.

It's this way everywhere. You go into a bookstore, you have a discount or rewards card pushed on you. You can't get a sandwich without a drink, groceries without a shopper's card, a TV without a service plan (or an installation pack, or a new remote or...).

Gamestop's simply catching up to the rest of the retail sector's crappy methods.

Policies exist for a reason. Unfortunately, a lot of people spend a lot of time looking for loopholes to these policies, which take advantage of retailers. Stores like GS, and any other store in a mall, are not non-profit organizations. Policies help companies increase profit by minimizing loss, whether it's by people who steal (and there are A LOT of people who steal) and people who abuse the perks a company offers, such as returns. That's right, allowing a customer to return a purchase IS a perk.

And guess what!? All that stuff 'pushed' on you? Reward cards, credit cards, etc.? It is the employees responsibility to do that, because that is what the employee is asked to do. Complain to a corporation if you must,(via email or a customer service hotline) but leave the employee out of it. Why hassle some kid behind a counter?

And all the rest of you who are moaning about the way employees behave...have you any idea that 99% of the reason that some retail employees end up behaving like that is because people like YOU treat them like crud all day long? All. Day. Long.

Yes, working ANY job is a choice...but I have more respect for someone who is working to support themselves or a family than I do for someone who does not.

Stop expecting retail employees to bow and cower at your feet like some sort of slave. They are people too. Treat them with respect and behold! You're more likely to be treated with the same respect right back!

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Capt. Obvious strikes again.

I've been to at LEAST a dozen and a half GameStop/EB Games stores all along the East Coast and I've yet to be witness to any of these problems that the vocal Internet denizens love to chirp about, leading me to strongly believe that these stories are all isolated incidents and not reflective of the corporation as a whole. In fact, the "shady" practices of the entire company seem to be no worse than what you would find at most major retailers. If Big Business scares you so much then by all means shop exclusively from mom and pop stores from now on.

That being said, I did not know most of the tips that this guy listed. It's always nice to know that I can get/save more money than I normally would.

Why are you shilling for gamestop so hard?

I guess with your experiences in 20/5000 gamestop stores that constitutes absolute proof that everyone bitching about gamestop is wrong. /sarcasm

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He is a douche dan, he argued the same thing about people who were upset with GH3 were just not playing it right.

He thinks that everything in his experience defines the world, and everyone else is a liar.

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The only "douches" are the ones whose minds have already been made up to the point that no amount of reasoning and logic to the contrary would sway them. I worked in a Barnes & Noble for several years and the kinds of practices we exercised are not much different than those of GameStop/EB Games. The only difference is that certain people have some kind of vendetta against GameStop. I guess it's because its stores don't have Starbucks cafes attached.

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@dan

Can't the same be said for you also? The only proof that you (and everyone else who's hating on GS) have shown is a couple of bad experiences you had from a couple of gamestops. That's not essentially proof that all customers who shop at gamestop experience the same crap you went through.

The fact is is that just like every other retail shop, there are some good GS stores with nice employees and there are bad ones with assholes. If you don't like being hassled (because god forbid a store tries to do business) then go somewhere else.

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There's not a single Gamestop in Ottawa that I know about, but I frequent EBs in the area, and I have yet to have had a problem. People I've dealt with have always been courteous and friendly, and I've reciprocated. Never understood this flack.

All the EB Games store's I've been to in Ottawa I've had great service. I've never had a problem and they've always answered their phone and answered questions over the phone also. But the Manager in Kanata at Centrum when he's grumpy and you ask a question he's cranky and short with you. I understand maybe he's heard the question 10 times in the last hour but he could be a little nicer. I avoid talking to him when he's there.

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my problem with GS started the day i bought Bioshock, on the release date i went into a gamestop with no preorder and asked for the game here's how the scene went
"hey can i get a copy of bioshock for the 360?"
"uh did you have a preorder?"
"no"
"oh then we don't have any extra"
"really?
"yeah, but come back tomorrow and we should have some more"
*drives to walmart to find massive pile of big daddy goodness*

There's another line of nonsense. Very rarely is this true. The only times this happens is when an employee is disgruntled to the point that he or she will just refuse to check their supplies. Chances are they DO have copies and they just refuse to be bothered. Again, this is isolated. In any case, it's a rather contradicting story to the ones about employees selling away other people's preorders. So which is it? Do they horde copies of the game or do they sell them to people who haven't preordered squat?

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Ad hominem attacks don't really help much to counter my observation. Besides, I'm using simple logic. The ONLY times you ever hear about these complaints about a given store are on message boards and blogs. If these accounts were truly widespread then it would follow that the store chain would lose a lot of business and make changes to correct these issues. The fact that the chain is growing means that more people are satisfied rather than dissatisfied with their experience.

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hey mega perhaps your local Gamestop or EB has delightful employees but it is never, and i mean never, acceptable to refuse to sell something because its a bother, and its not like that gamers are annoying customers, try working at a movie theatre concession stand, those kids get constantly berated for shit like selling a small drink for 4 bucks but do they ever tell you they can't scoop popcorn because its a bother? no that is unacceptable behavior in any work field

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I agree. That IS unacceptable behavior. But it rarely happens. Also, I've been to at least a dozen and a half GameStop/EB Games stores on the East Coast and I've never encountered any such problems. While gamers may be model customers, they aren't the only shoppers. Asshole consumers are not exclusive to any one venue.

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haha shmil, that's happened to me for a few games, so I eventually just started going to the bestbuy first and now I get my games right away. gamestop is fucking lame

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And actually, when you know this has happened to you and then see more people experiencing the EXACT treatment, it speaks more towards a company trend than to an isolated incident.

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That's still an isolated incident. It's ONE store and more than likely only ONE customer. There are over 5000 stores total in the chain. I call that isolated.

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It's not a single incedent, I travel all over the counrty being in the navy and have experienced this shit on both coasts, north south and middle.

Again I'm going to point out that just because you think everything is peachy doesn't mean the world is wrong and you are right. Just like with GH3, all the people who are pissed about timing being off and general craptastic production must be wrong because you didn't notice.

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It's not a single incedent, I travel all over the counrty being in the navy and have experienced this shit on both coasts, north south and middle.

Again I'm going to point out that just because you think everything is peachy doesn't mean the world is wrong and you are right. Just like with GH3, all the people who are pissed about timing being off and general craptastic production must be wrong because you didn't notice.

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It's not a single incedent, I travel all over the counrty being in the navy and have experienced this shit on both coasts, north south and middle.

Again I'm going to point out that just because you think everything is peachy doesn't mean the world is wrong and you are right. Just like with GH3, all the people who are pissed about timing being off and general craptastic production must be wrong because you didn't notice.

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So is there a reason why YOU assume that YOU are right? You seem to think that I am labeling everyone else liars, but isn't that what you are doing to me? Because if I was wrong then that would mean you are right, but you wouldn't "stoop" to my level, would you?

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There's another line of nonsense. Very rarely is this true. The only times this happens is when an employee is disgruntled to the point that he or she will just refuse to check their supplies. Chances are they DO have copies and they just refuse to be bothered

hat's still an isolated incident. It's ONE store and more than likely only ONE customer. There are over 5000 stores total in the chain

these stories are all isolated incidents and not reflective of the corporation as a whole

Sounds like your mind is pretty made up.

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As is yours. That is, unless, there is some celestial event that could cause a change of mind?

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@ Mega
http://www.penny-arcade.com
read Gabe's post

i don't think these are isolated cases

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The Gamestop by me has nice people, including one beautiful girl with a beaming smile. There is so much selection including hundreds of old Gamecube and GBA games. Yes pre orders are kind of lame but nobody is forcing you to buy them.

The beautiful girl is actually a ploy to get you to buy shit you don't want.

The top 5 sellers of Game Informer and their crappy insurance program are all Girls, because lonely nerdy guys can't say no to a pretty face thats flirting with them.

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...And the problem with that is?

GameStop is allowed to use pretty women to get me to buy things. If it works for beer, cars and health insurance (long story), it'll work for games.

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Gamestop manager busts retail myths

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