5 things that make Gamestop unbearable
I can’t take it any longer. As a gamer who has an insatiable tendency to make impulse purchases, Gamestop, for better or worse, tends to be my one-stop shop for all things gaming. With that said, I also despise Gamestop as much if not more than the judging staff of American Idol, and here’s a list of the top 5 worst things about almost every Gamestop location.
1. The scent of all things unholy that greets your nostrils when you step through the door – Apparently when gamers sit in their parents’ basement for three days straight before venturing to Gamestop, their bodies unleash a potpourri of foul odors that ferments with the acrimonious odors of other gamers inside Gamestop locations. There’s a certain unpleasant heat typical of closely packed bodies that tends to induce nausea as well.
2. Demo consoles either don’t work or are plagued by little kids who can’t pay for them – I’m all for allowing kids to have a good time, and we’ve all been at that stage in life where the idea of playing a game in a store is incredibly exciting. However, if consoles are actually on and functional (either RRODs or negligent store employees tend to squash demo hopes at Gamestops), there’s always a gaggle of small children crowding the display, with no intention of letting anyone else play. Parents can’t be found, and I’m left standing watching some uncoordinated little brat with a two dollar a week allowance playing a video game I’ll have to make a judgement call on from behind the pack of youngsters.
3. When there are parents around, they’re always in the bloody way, slowing things down – It isn’t really the parents’ fault. No doubt their kids are trying to convince them of the ethical lessons inherent to Grand Theft Auto IV, or that Dead or Alive Beach Volleyball will help them in gym class. However, to a gamer like me, they’re really just in the way.
Probably my favorite parent-in-Gamestop story was when I was purchasing Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, beside me at the second register was a mom and her 12-year old son. She was buying him one of the Condemned games, and the clerk had already given her a disapproving look. He began to explain that the game was incredibly violent, and certainly not befitting someone of her son’s age, but she interrupted his lecture, “Its ok, he does very well in school, so I let him do what he likes. After all, he doesn’t look like he’d shoot up a school, does he?” I couldn’t help but laugh; I thoroughly enjoyed my first run-in with one of “those” parents.
3. You can’t turn in more than one of the same game title at once – I found this completely ridiculous. I was victim of a few RRODs, and also the victim of the infamous disc-scratching nature of the 360. I don’t care who you are, I never moved the blasted thing from when I received one back from Xbox and from when I finally traded it in to Gamestop. Regardless, I had 2 copies of Call of Duty 4 to turn in when I bought my Playstation 3. They made me turn one copy in, walk out of the store, and open up another transaction to off the old copies, and when I purchased a copy for PS3 minutes later, they IDed me.
4. The second worst thing about Gamestop is that you can’t buy a thing without an annoying sales pitch from someone without any sales skills – I am a firm believer in NOT pre-ordering games, yet every time you go in, someone with no sales knowledge rambles off a monotonous speech about pre-ordering this, or enrolling in that. All that pre-selling games does is allow manufacturers and Gamestop to manipulate and simulate demand. I find the whole practice underhanded and distasteful.
5. The most unbearable thing about Gamestop, above all else, are the characters that work there. I cannot count how many presumptuous, pretentious, and socially inept Gamestop employees I have encountered at various points. If they aren’t judging your game selection or offering you life advice (advice that people working there should decidedly not be giving), they are rude and disagreeable. I cannot stand a store employee that acts pissed off at me for asking him to look up a price in his computer, or rolls his eyes when I ask him to retrieve something for me. I don’t want to hear the story of a 45-year old store manager who thinks my console choice is poor. My only consolation is that his entire existence is based on a low-paying retail job where he is a king amongst fledgling gamers.
Those are my five most unbearable aspects of Gamestop; what are yours?
Related Posts:
35 Responses to “5 things that make Gamestop unbearable”
Leave a Reply:
You must be logged in to post a comment. Don't have an account? Register today!
May 23rd, 2008
My spider senses are telling me that GameStop is not your thing. Simple solution – purchase online and give way to people who actually have something decent to write take precedence.
May 23rd, 2008
err… try Wal Mart dude… illegal mexicans are VERY helpful… then again… what do I know… Im not in America
May 23rd, 2008
Okay, not that I’m trying to defend Gamestop or come off as any kind of a fanboy, but my BS detector is going off. 1, 2 and 3 are not even legitimately the fault of the company and I have rarely, if ever experienced a terrible smell upon entering an electronics store of any kind, let alone Gamestop. I’d like to point out at this time that you listed six reasons and labled two of them as “3″. The second one you labled as 3 is a legitimate problem, but it’s the only one I see here. If you don’t like the sales pitches you should try working as a cashier sometime, I guarantee you they hate it far more than you do, and it’s not that big of a deal to just say you’re not interested. Finally you can’t go and make a generalization by saying all Gamestop employees are rude and socially inept. Different people in different parts of the country will treat you differently. In my area (east Tn.) I have never had a bad experience with Gamestop employees and was almost always able to have a pleasant and intelligent conversation during my transaction. tl;dr, Your list is bs.
May 23rd, 2008
I soo agree with you! I have only found one viable solution . . . I was out visiting my cousins last month and shopped at a Playntrade. I had never been in that store before. . . Was THE BEST game store I had ever been in. . .. Hope we get one here soon, but not likely. .. Montana is always last on the list. . . lol
May 23rd, 2008
Yeah some video game nerds STINK! I was at EB last month and there was this big, fat red headed dude with an afro wearing a black trench coat. It looked like Ronald McDonald forgot to shower and then turned goth.
May 23rd, 2008
J,
Just because Triston doesn’t post flame articles all the time it doesn’t mean that his colums aren’t decent.
May 23rd, 2008
Nice commentary Triston… speaking of Gamestop, it turns out their upcoming games list twice as many XBox exclusives for the remainder of the year versus the PS3:
http://www.digitalmagazine.com.au/2008/05/24/xbox-360-annihilates-ps3-with-two-times-more-exclusives/
May 23rd, 2008
Went into Gamestop once. Encountered reason number 5, and walked out.
May 23rd, 2008
Yeah, beat it J. Good article and enable discussion other than “360 v PS3″.
We don’t have a Gamestop” here, so I would comment, but it would just be a “Kevin comment” absolutley no knowledge or basis whatso ever… lol.
Over here, most games stores overcharge massively for games of all platforms. A lot of gamers here are buying from play-asia and alike because it is hugely cheaper.
May 23rd, 2008
Yeah, I agree dude. And I also disagree. I have had those few rare instances in Gamestop where 1. Staff was knowledgable and
2. Noone got in my way, or parents stood in front of me asking what kind of game Grand Theft Duty 4 is….
But your right, most of the experiences there are unbearable, but I will also probably never attempt a shot at another game store. Oh well, good article dude, keep on writing.
May 24th, 2008
My biggest problem with Gamestop is that they always have to open their games when competitors don’t. Whenever I want to purchase a game new they take it from the drawers and put it in the case. If I wanted to get an opened game and buy it new then I would buy a used copy. You just can’t trust them.
May 24th, 2008
hmm maybe australia should start their own E.B hate list,…. but that would take a few articles
May 24th, 2008
WHAT wolfpack??
They OPEN THE GAMES!!!
why the hell am I gonna pay 60 bucks if they are gonna open them?? I dont want ANYONE touching the disks… cept me and the people who made it and packed it…
This is bullshit.. Im not gonna buy from gamestop… though I never did
So which game store is the best?? which gives you the least trouble… the least amount of “subscribe/pre order” this” crap… and which store DOESNT open the disk??
May 24th, 2008
amazon.com
May 24th, 2008
dude i went ot the states for 4 months
i live in south america
my first visit to a gamestop was to buy a PSP and a PS3 for my brother down here
they not only treated my like crap
but when i was paying for my stuff they asked me for my ID and they gave me a look like saying how can you afford this?
anyways
gamestop had good stuff but good employees wasnt there, i was in cedar city Utah…dont ask
May 24th, 2008
Coming from someone who has been on the other end of the spectrum let me share some opinions.
The smell, depending on the day can be rank at best… but you’re in there for about 30 min max… try 6hr shifts being subjected to that constantly. not every day, but there have been some bad ones.
The demo units. I hear you’re pain about them. If they aren’t broken from the conditions they are subjected to (The PS3 and XB360 are locked inside hardened plexiglass and/or metal cases with little to no ventilation and are highly apt to overheat), or they are swarmed anytime school isn’t in session. Even then the manufacturers don’t send out enough demo’s to even keep them up to date.
Parents I’ve never really had a grief with unless they are buying their 6yo GTA4… {idiots}
Trades, more then 2… that must be a local store policy, we’ve never had a problem with it.
WE HATE THE SALES PITCH MORE THEN ANYONE LISTENING TO IT! But we get fired if we’re not doing it. Any retail job has things like that. And as for reserves, unless it’s a big package item (AKA: Rockband, GH3, Wii Fit, etc…) there really isn’t a reason to pre-order, but it’s nice to know that we will be holding you one, and that you’re not paying any extra money.
The workers, I’m not gonna say I take offense to that but I don’t consider myself an idiot. I can be opinionated but I’m not going to belittle you. I’ll probably recommend going and renting a title before buying it if I’ve played it and it was a steaming pile, but if thats what you want go for it. I actually love it when a customer comes in and I can get in an actual intellectual conversation.
About them opening all the games, thats not exactly true. They don’t send us demo cases to put out on the shelves so they end up making us open 1-2 cases and putting the disks in sleeves that we put behind the counter. The only way we sell those sleeves is if we have no sealed copies left. It’s something that no employee likes and I try to explain to every customer why this is. But it’s not every game.
May 24th, 2008
I work at a gamestop and frankly I am not mean. Usually I am the one who is doing more than 2/3rds of the “projects” in our store while 2 others (manager and a Co-Worker… Er “Game Associate.”) just sit at the counter. I always help people and usually I never try to give out buying decisions or advice on a console because frankly it all depends on what people want to play. And sometimes even the highest rating will leave people with a sour taste in their mouths after coming in days later saying “It only has 4V4 player ONLINE!” or “This game just isn’t fun. For an MMO it stinks!”
I usually just keep things mutual and don’t push sales. If they want to pre-order I’ll do it. They want help finding a game just ask me.
But I have to say that there is one last thing you missed that SHOULD be on your list.
The kid who comes to the counter trying to buy a game thats rated either T or M only to be DENIED because he can’t show an ID. Then they call their friends to “act” like his/her parrents.
May 24th, 2008
Walmart, Walmart, Walmart. 24 hours of game shopping ease. Most of there employees dont know anything about games so you never get a opinion. They never harass you with preorders. No need to preorder Walmart always has tons of copies of the newest games. Save yourself the gameing heartache and hit Wally world.
May 24th, 2008
Gamestop DOES NOT open their games. That is only for used games, or the very last copy of a game (the game that came from the empty box on the shelf).
May 24th, 2008
Dude, it’s not that serious, take your ass to Best Buy if you really have a problem with the GS experience, whatever that may be.
May 24th, 2008
Hilarious articles…much is true
May 24th, 2008
I hate it, when some faggot persuades you to buy another console you dont like. The other day I notice a guy buying a PS3, and this jackass employee, told him,”you do know that xbox360 has better games right?”, to which the customer responded”yeah but I like the PS3 features”, so this idiot says”oh but xbox live is awesome, I recommend you playing Halo3 on live”, still the customer responded” well Im getting COD4 for PS3 so Im set with that”, but the GameStop bot would not give up, its as if he gets a commission for every 360 he sells.
May 24th, 2008
Try an independent store! Stores like ours all have a tough time due to some of the things that the national chain stores do to shut us out. Do what you can to support your privately owned businesses! They will appreciate it!
May 24th, 2008
Actually, if there are any patient gamers out there, I would recommend Gamefly. They have the best selection you could imagine, and you can get games REALLY cheap from them if you don’t mind waiting a while for them to go on sale. I waited and got Folklore for $28. No stores, no problem, no having to leave my apartment. Now if they would just put Bladestorm up for sale…
-Arvis
May 24th, 2008
I now realize that Gamefly may not be available outside of the US. Sorry.
May 24th, 2008
Apology accepted
May 25th, 2008
Just go to walmart there you wont be harassed about your age, preorders, or worst of all the employes freaking opinion.
May 25th, 2008
Yeah J, hit the bricks. And get a haircut while you’re at it.
May 27th, 2008
wow… you hit the nail right on the head with this one. #5 is an epidemic. it’s hilarious listening to $8/hr “experts”.
May 27th, 2008
I soo agree with this article, especially numbers 3-5. The people at the gamestop closest to me(which is about 30 miles away, only reason i shop at it from time to time is it is located in the closest mall) are usually very knowlegable. However, if i ask them a simple question about a release date or what consoles a game will be released on it is always followed by, “YOU WANNA PREORDER THAT! 5 DOLLARS DOWN GET THE GAME DAY IT COMES OUT!!!” followed by me saying no thanks which is followed by “SERIOUSLY PREORDER 5 DOLLARS DOWN BLAH BLAH”. I get sick of that. I dont preorder games because I have a few friends who have done it before, and then somehow the data got lost and they didnt have their receits so the preorder counted for nothing… the worst part is he had paid for the game completely. This is the type of thing that makes me want to never shop there agian. To be honest, the employees at the nearby target are much more helpful than gamestop employees.
May 28th, 2008
spidey – i’m still waiting for what post i posted that is void of facts. thanks.
clown.
May 28th, 2008
Just about every post you make is void of facts. Now that is a fact.
Thanks.
Tool.
May 28th, 2008
GameStop and EB Games both suck and they love Xbox 360 which most of the display console has the red light of death… Don’t buy there there don’t know nothing about real gaming…
July 2nd, 2008
GameStop..Power to the people baby:p
Don’t like us don’t come for the games then.. One bad apple does not rot the whole batch sir. Thank you for coming to Gamestop:p
July 20th, 2009
gamestop blows.. we dont want your fucking edge cards.. we dont want your fucking bullshit scratched up used games for 2 dollars less than the new one’s and we dont want your gay ass fucking opinion on what system or games were buying shut your god damn mouth and just ring us up and let us leave simple as that.