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Confessions of a Gamestop Manager
The site Consumerist has up a lengthy post from a former Gamestop manager, listing some of the sins, boons, pitfalls and promises perpetrated while he was on the job. Includes a discussion of the 'gutted' display game, pre-orders, the 'discount' card, trades, and lots of 'pro-tips' on how to get the most out of your Gamestopping experience. "19) Don't be afraid to sell things on your own! The going resell rates for any current games or accessories online is usually close to what we resell for. If its a much newer title and you don't mind listing and shipping it, you could make a small handful more selling it online yourself. Ebay and Amazon.com are obvious choices, but you may find other outlets that work for you."
After several bad experiences, I stopped buying altogether from Gamestop over a year ago.
The pre-order sales push is ridiculous. I was literally called a "retard" for not pre-ordering Halo 3 when I tried to pick my copy of Gears of War up from the store. There wasn't even a confirmed release date for the game at the time. I couldn't believe I was called a retard, and asked the clerk, "excuse me?" to which he repeated, "yeah, only a retard wouldn't pre-order that game... man, it's going to be impossible to get!".
Another time, I had walked into a Gamestop (different store) and asked about the new SSX game for the Wii. The store employee said, "Oh, do you have it reserved? OF COURSE YOU DON'T OR YOU WOULDN'T BE ASKING IF WE HAD IT!" to which he laughed at me, and then told me that they did have some extra copies but that they were only going to be selling the pre-orders on that day.
One of my pre-orders that I DID place was 3 days late and I got a different excuse each time. Finally I demanded my refund for the pre-order back and went to Target and picked a copy up off of the shelf.
GameStop doesn't treat customers with any respect whatsoever. I shouldn't have to feel like I'm walking into a used car lot when I want to buy a video game. The sales tactics, lies, and pressure make me loathe the place, and I refuse to buy anything from them. Hastings and Target have always had the title ready for me on the day of release (yes, even Halo 3), so I will shop there. I will also tell anybody that I possibly can about the above stories so that others may also avoid this place.
Gamestop employees: I don't care if you're "just doing your job". You're a puppet made to act like a pushy asshole. Get a new job. They're out there.
Locally, we have a couple of EB games. Like most people, I just buy used games there. The ones in the mall are pretty bad, but there is one in a strip center on the edge of that has a lot more used games than most, and the employees are pretty nice.
My 4 year old son loves to play lego Star Wars. I bought Lego Star wars 2 off of Amazon, and we had a good time playing. However, we had never played the original Lego Star wars. So I put my 4 year old in his car seat, and we made the trek to our local game stop.
According to the employee, they had 1 copy somewhere in the store. Unfortuanly, their Xbox games were all piled into one of those 4 foot by 4 foot bins, and in no particular order. The employee and I started leafing through all the game in search of the star wars title. We were just getting started when my 4 year old son walked up, stuck his hand in the bin, and pulled out the only copy of the game in the store. I still don't know how my son knew THAT was the game we were looking for. I suspect it was the Lego people on the box though...